Spelunky News!

 Nominations Voting for the 2019 Spelunky Community Awards has opened!

Posted by GC on December 4th, 2019 @03:25AM

Hello all!

It’s that time of year again - time for the 2019 Spelunky Community Awards! We will start with a 1 week nominations round before the final voting opens. Winners will be announced in a TBD format just before the turn of the decade! 

As of now, nominations voting is officially opened! Please vote ONCE ONLY at this link: https/forms.gle/2XGAMPDrPLMVnkJn6. Nominations voting will close Wednesday, December 7th, at 11:59 PM GMT.

~GC

 Spelunky in April 2019: A MossNews Recap

Posted by GC on May 6th, 2019 @09:56PM

Spelunky in April 2019: A MossNews Recap

 

Over the course of April 2019, many runs were submitted, science discoveries were made, and the community continued to grow! In these monthly recaps, I’ll be looking over some of the most significant happenings in the community including World Record runs (non-main category), other PBs, science discoveries, and how the community as a whole developed over the month of April! As I am one person, I unfortunately haven’t had the time to watch every single run submitted, nor do I have the time to recap them all. However, I will be covering each WR that does not have its own article (looking at you, ix), and numerous other significant PBs and first completions by members of the community. I’ll also be covering events that aren’t runs, such as new MossNews features, science discoveries, and community events (in months to come). If you complete a run you feel is significant, feel free to shoot me a PM, and I’ll do my best to cover it in the next recap. Like I said before, I’m only one person. If I leave out a run you think is important, take it as a testament to the sheer number of submitted runs rather than an affront to its significance (and definitely let me know for next time)! Without further ado, let’s get started on the happenings this month!

 

What better way than to start than with world records? Kinnijup improved the Low% Hell record with a time of 5:07, and reclaimed the Score record with a score of $7.43 million! D_tea also continued his score-running dominance by winning 2 back-to-back dailies - both of which were world records! This feat is unlikely to ever be repeated. In addition to those main category runs (which have their own articles), there were 4 more records split between Kinnijup and ix. Kinnijup improved the Low% No Gold Hell record (a devilishly tricky but enjoyable category), breaking the 6 minute barrier with a time of 5:57! As required on any Low% Hell run, 5-3 was an absolute nightmare and a vampire nearly ended the run after Yama’s death. His other world record was a massive 13 second improvement of the No Teleporter No Gold Max Any% category, with a time of 3:06. I am not exaggerating when I say this run is one of my favorite Spelunky runs ever - the extremely technical plays, close calls, and fast-paced excitement of the run far outpace the recognition it got - I highly recommend watching this run, as it is its own highlight reel. While Kinni was dominating the No Gold scene, ix secured his Tier 5 Pacify71 Achievement with 2 pacifist world records - No Gold True Pacifist Hell% (a time of 11:05) and Max True Pacifist Hell% (a time of 11:44). ix now holds all 5 pacifist world records, 3 of which have never been completed by anyone else! While several other runners have the ability to complete these runs, at the moment ix is far and away the best pacifist runner in the game, a reputation evident by these records. GG Kinni and ix!

 

April proved itself to be a prolific month for both challenge and speed runs, with many submitted runs in both areas. Both Yandie and BronxTaco completed an RTA trifecta, with All Characters and All Journal Entries by both, and an All Achievements run by the former and an All Shortcuts + Olmec run by the latter. The popularity of AJE since its introduction to the main ranking formula has continued with 10 submissions this month (including an impressive 39:34 by Khold), while ASO lagged just behind with 7 submissions (including a jetpackless 17:45 by TNF). Continuing with the main category runs, The popular Low% category received many submissions from newer players (including a first clear by #daily-challenge resident 84BombsJetpack). Samcv became the newest addition to the sub-3 club, after submitting an action-packed yet quite clean 2:59. The No Gold variant of Low% received a single submission from thatmarkguy (our most frequent submitter this month), who also submitted a speedy 6:26 first clear of the moneyed Maximum variant. This max low% category also received runs from other spelunkers, including a first clear by tuabiht, and the end of Spelunky abstinence from SAIBOT, who submitted a speedy #4 time of 3:51. In an amusing twist, Baq completed the category twice with times of 5:24.764 and 5:24.763, making him the WR holder for smallest PB improvement. Samcv also submitted a Haunted variant of this run, with a time of 5:38 despite a “questionable” temple. On the No Gold side of runs, both the Any% and Hell% variants received submissions from spelunkers of all skill levels, including a notable second place No Gold run of 1:51 by d_tea!

 

Other Hell main categories received multiple submissions this month, including a sub-5 Hell% time of 4:48 by ChocolateCake5000, who also completed the Max variant in a blazing 5:41. Other completers of Max Hell% include AlwaysOlmec, Buddy7heElf, BlueCadet3, SuspenseNasty, InTol, Baq, and thatmarkguy. In addition, kobs continued to shoot up the rankings with a fast Eggplant% (13:29). One of the most infamous categories, Low% Hell, was a very popular one! Aside from Kinnijup’s WR, Choco submitted yet another speed time of 7:06, while first clears were achieved by AlwaysOlmec, BronxTaco, and Kobs. Congratulations to all of these runners on completing this difficult milestone! The most popular category this month, however, was No Teleporter Any%. This category received 14 submissions, including an impressive first MR submission of 2:48 by Phoenix, three sub-2:40s (2:39 by DieDyeDai, 2:36 by ix, and 2:34 by Buddy), and runs from Skylark, InTol, Baq, jgunz3, BlueCadet3, Loki Nighton, HeinzSkitsvelvet (also a low%), TicTacFoe, 84BombsJetpack, and thatmarkguy.

 

 

Before we leave the speedrunning scene, I’d like to make two honorable mentions for runs not quite in April - d_tea’s Shield Run WR in 9:14 (also his first clear of the category), and ix’s Udjat Run WR in 20:20. Both of these categories can be very difficult and prone to the glitchiest “features” of the game, so GG to both runners!

 

With a shift to the challenge run side of things, there were many submissions to the less popular and more difficult run categories. I personally have a soft spot for Pacifist, No%, and HH runs, so I’m very excited to see these categories receiving some love. Firstly, Buddy7heElf joined the most elite completion club, by completing the ultimate challenge of Maximum Low% No Gold Hell (lovingly referred to as MLNGH or LMNGH). This is a phenomenal achievement, especially since Buddy has lost multiple runs on Yama and completed runs with unavoidable gold. The run itself is chock-full of exciting moments, including low health worm plays, strategic ropes, and spike-ball dodges. GG Buddy! There were two submissions in the Maximum Eggplant% category, including a jetpack-less first clear by GC (using a BM HH and scary “safe” spots), and a speedy second-place time of 15:30 by ix. Pacifist was another hot category this month. Aside from ix’s WRs, BronxTaco submitted a first clear of True Pacifist Hell% in 22:01, and GC completed the No Gold variant in 14:23 (without rescuing damsels, making it a 0/0/0 run). Pacifist grew in a non-official setting as well, with numerous runners completing the Any% variant (which allows 1 kill of Olmec), including ix’s WR of 4:23, and Bronx's time of 4:59. BronxTaco also submitted a first clear for the Key To Yama run, checking another run off of his Challenger achievement. Congrats to all of these runners for these awesome runs!

 

 

This month also saw the introduction of Co-op categories, with All Journal Entries Co-op. 11 runs were submitted, with the World Record being claimed by ix and Mazerak with a time of 24:27. Many of these runs were performed live at the Kapala Cup or the SpeedEvents Showcase, although 3 duos joined up on stream to complete this category, including ix/Khold, ix/GC, and BronxTaco/Yandie. I hope this category continues to grow, as it is quite fun to run!

 

Speedruns were not the only thing happening in the community this month, however. Science continued to be done, with discussions on how level generation on 3-4-2 changes depending on whether or not a player takes the worm path, as well as continued research into optimal score duping strategies. ContraMuffin, Kirby703, Dan, and other scientists continued with highly specialized experiments on whether removing large nuggets from large piles of money improves duping. Their findings boil down to this: While many factors may influence the exact results of duping, it is generally better to collect large nuggets before a dupe attempt, as long as the dupe pile has at least 128 items. This strat, introduced by d_tea, provides a minor increase to the theoretical maximum of score per level (without manipulating and keeping track of every single entity in the level). In addition, research was continued on a feature called “entanglement”. If you have ever seen two items swapping rendering order for seemingly no reason, this is entanglement at play. Entanglement is just what happens when 2 or more items share the same slot in the entity list. When that happens, the game swaps the precedences of those items really easily (and thus their rendering is slightly glitchy). In general, they will tend to swap places when entities are created/deleted (such as the whip or shotgun bullets). A swap in a specific direction (called “absorption”) had been confirmed earlier, and now the reversal of this swap (called an “emission”) has been verified to occur. For more information about this, many of the scientists in #spelunky-science would be happy to explain.

 

Finally, April saw the introduction of a new MossNews feature, Newcomer Spotlight. Initially suggested by Spef, this feature has been covering some of the new and improved members of the Spelunky community. The first two editions covered BronxTaco and Loki Nighton, and hopefully this will continue to be a regular feature.

 

April has been a great month for Spelunky, with numerous speed and challenge PBs, science discoveries, and community growth. Here’s to a successful May!

 

 Newcomer Spotlight: Loki Nighton

Posted by GC on April 29th, 2019 @05:31PM

This series of spotlights of some of the new and improved members of the community is a spiritual successor to hb’s 21 Questions With series. Similar to its predecessor, various community “newcomers” (defined loosely) will be interviewed about themselves, their background, and their Spelunky goals (either run-wise or community-wise).

This is a semi-regular feature, with articles coming out biweekly (or as often as newcomers join the community!) In this second installment, our interviewee is Loki Nighton!

 

Newcomer Spotlight: Loki Nighton

 

At the beginning of 2019, Loki Nighton made a resolution: they were going to get good at one game in particular. That game was Spelunky. Having been introduced to the game from the Youtuber NerdCubed a while back, Loki became intrigued and began playing the game, eventually reaching the jungle. After that, their focus shifted to other games and work, and Spelunky was an aside until January of this year. Since then, Loki has made good on their promise to improve at Spelunky!


And improve they have! Aside from getting past the Jungle for the first time, Loki has completed much more difficult categories (including Low%, Max Hell, and No Gold Hell). From a catalogue of 53 total submitted runs, Loki chose No Gold Hell% as their favorite run - for good reason! This category can be very difficult for new players, and requires avoiding all money while traveling through a level literally made of gold! In this level, Loki made a very precise gold dodge which still makes my fur stand on end rewatching it.


Loki’s favorite category to run is Temple%, as they feel the panic and chaos-filled run channels the spirit of Spelunky itself. From their run comments on MossRanking, it’s also clear that Low% is another favorite of Loki - in fact, they’ve had a few sub-4 minute paces die late in the run, so be ready for a 3 minute time to come! Approaching the game with bubbly, excitable energy, Loki aims to continue improving their rank on MossRanking, (and perhaps even become the SonicFox of Spelunky).

When Loki is not playing Spelunky, you can find them reviewing toys and games on their Youtube channel Luk and Lok, eating, or sleeping. It’s wonderful to have them in the community!

You can check out Loki Nighton on Twitch: https/www.twitch.tv/loki_nighton

 

Previous interviewee: BronxTaco

 MossNews World Record Summary: - 5:07.369 Low% Hell by Kinnijup

Posted by GC on April 10th, 2019 @11:39PM

Of all the main category runs, Low% Hell is widely considered the most difficult, with only 40 runners having ever completed a run. Few runners submit a second completion, and even fewer have a competitive speed time. Kinnijup is one of those even fewer, having just improved his world record run from 5:12, to a blazingly fast 5:07.369!

This difficulty of the category is due to several bottlenecks in the run. The first of these is the black market (which is actually 2 challenges in 1). Since the run is low%, players are not allowed to use the Udjat Eye to find the hidden entrance, but instead must rely on perception of small leaves around a block to gain access to the secret shopping mall. Then (unless the player has collected $50,000), the player must survive a level full of 7 angry men wielding shotguns without discretion, only armed with an ineffective whip and heavy feet. From that point on, the player must deal with angry shopkeepers at the exit of every level (until they achieve deaggro, which isn’t always possible). The next major bottleneck is 4-1, where Anubis must be slain - with no more than 2 bombs on average to work with. It is worth noting that Anubis might spawn in a blocked off area, necessitating the use of those bombs just to gain access! Assuming the player survives the City of Gold (and saved a bomb to access the Book of the Dead), they must then fight both Olmec and Anubis II at the same time! After succeeding at this nontrivial feat, they are rewarded with 3 levels of deadly and difficult platforming (including a small chance for blocked-off layouts, ending all runs without a bomb), and then a fight against the Lord of the Underworld. This fight requires players to have either saved 2 ropes, or perform precise whips to avoid being stunned by falling skulls. After removing King Yama’s face and pinning it so that it is repeatedly stabbed (all while fending off the other enemies in the area), the player is free to exit and claim their treasure! Doesn’t sound too hard, right?

Despite starting off as a fairly typical run (45 seconds out of the mines), Kinni began playing conservatively in 2-2, using a bat to jump a 3-tile tiki trap instead of wasting a rope. Immediately spotting a Black Market at the entrance of 2-3, Kinni made short work of the shopkeepers. Even though a tiki trap made his escape much more difficult, he safely exited in less than 30 seconds. With deft movements and an iron grip, Kinni sped past the 3-1 exit guard, before quickly killing himself on 3-2 to obtain the hedjet, the second (or third, if you count the udjat eye) item in the hell progression. Due to the moai spawning on the earlier of the two possible levels, Kinnijup was able to achieve deaggro in the minimum amount of time possible! This greatly aided him through the rest of the run. After easily zooming past the rest of the ice caves, Kinni entered the temple on pace with the previous WR.

4-1, however, was an amazing level. With the aid of a landmine, Kinni dispatched Anubis, stole his scepter, and exited - in 13 seconds. This is a 13 second improvement over the previous world record’s 4-1! A simple 4-2 allowed him to gain even more time, entering the City of Gold with 2:34, nearly 30 seconds ahead! After some precise and platforming, Kinni entered Olmec’s Lair still under 3 minutes. Using his last bomb to damage Anubis II, Kinnijup risks a fast Olmec fight - where the player basically ignores Anubis II and hopes that the combined zoo of Olmec and Anubis II has mercy. This strategy is dangerous, and is usually guaranteed damage. Kinni, however, escapes unharmed, entering Hell with full health, 2 ropes, and an insane time - over 30 seconds ahead of the previous world record!. Hell, however, does not have mercy. He is treated to grueling level after grueling level, each one more difficult than the previous. Kinni used every tool in his arsenal to clear them as fast as possible, including an arguably intentional damage boost, and even nearly jumping on a blue devil!

Yama’s Throne was not kind either. Although the lesser enemies were minimally aggressive, Yama’s first attack was to spawn magma men (the worst start for speedruns), which prevented Kinni from grabbing his foe’s face initially. After he had repositioned Yama to be stabbed repeatedly in the face, Kinni found that the exit was on the opposite side of the throne. During his traverse of the throne itself, one missed jump added another 2-3 seconds to the collective toll of Hell. Kinni’s insane early pace, however, was easily enough to guarantee a world record by over 5 seconds, with a final time of 5:07.369. Congratulations Kinnijup, and I look forward to more runs!



SPLITS (compared against previous WR):

Mines: 0:45 (+12s)
Jungle: 0:54 (-6s), running total 1:39 (+6s)
Ice Caves: 0:36 (-7s), running total 2:15 (-1s)
Temple: 1:22 (-30s), running total 3:37 (-31s)
Hell: 1:30 (+25s)
Total: 5:07.369 (-5.054s)


 Back-to-Back Daily High Score World Records by d_tea

Posted by GC on April 7th, 2019 @02:15AM

 

It’s not often that players win two daily challenges in a row. It’s even less often that both of these scores are world records! In fact, this is the first time that any player has ever gotten two world records on back-to-back dailies (there have been a few single dailies that had multiple world records, however). With astonishing scores of $6,965,675 and $8,762,150 on the March 31st and April 1st dailies respectively, d_tea has done just that. It’s even more impressive that both of these runs outpace the world record for non-seeded score. So just what made these runs so massive?

 

Well, one initial advantage of daily challenges is that they can be scouted, and thus tea was able to plan out the most efficient use of resources. For example, since he knew that in the March 31st daily, each mines level had a few bombs (and the Black Market entrance in 2-1 only needed a single bomb), he was able to use his bombs early to maximize score. However, in the big picture, this really is not that relevant to the overall score. Optimization of resource usage and ghosting in the mines can account for at MOST $100k - but the first run beat the world record by over $350k. The real culprit here is duping.

 

Ever since the discovery and research of the underlying mechanics of render duping, the three temple levels (excluding Olmec) can account for over half of the entire run! In addition, duping in Hell can account for another third of the total. For example, on the April 1st daily, tea exited Olmec with $6.2 million - gaining the other $2.5 million in Hell! It seems the real difference maker between a good seed and a great seed (these two dailies) is the dupability.


Dupability, particularly in the temple and hell, depends mainly on one thing - lavafalls. Lavafalls contribute a large amount of "noise" to a level (which has the effect of dampening, or even outright cancelling duping). The lack of lavafalls on the April 1st daily allowed tea to gain an unprecedented amount of wealth in the lategame. In fact, while both dailies were massive (and good seeds), the only significant difference between the seeds was the lavafall count. While there are several requirements for a seed to be 6 million worthy (namely saveable hired help and a jetpack), the real dealmaker for an 8 million seed is the lavafall count.



GG d_tea, and I look forward to more runs to come!

 

 

 Newcomer Spotlight: BronxTaco

Posted by GC on April 2nd, 2019 @07:55PM

 

An Introduction: This series of spotlights of some of the new and improved members of the community is a spiritual successor to hb’s 21 Questions With series. Similar to its predecessor, various community “newcomers” (defined loosely) will be interviewed about themselves, their background, and their Spelunky goals (either run-wise or community-wise).

 

I will try to make this a regular feature, with articles coming out every other week (more or less, depending on interest level). Without further ado, our first interviewee is BronxTaco!

 

Newcomer Spotlight: BronxTaco

 

BronxTaco, also known as Tim from Melbourne, Australia, is a 34-year old oil rig piping designer - a draftsman job involving use of 3D modelling software. On the side, his hobbies include writing and performing music (on the piano, drums, and guitar, which you can check out here), video games, and rock climbing! It was his avid rock climbing, however, that lead Tim to begin playing Spelunky beyond casual playthroughs - After a broken ankle sustained while climbing, BronxTaco turned to Spelunky as a relief from the resulting pain and boredom.

 

From there, he began watching d_tea and Israel Blargh and then began playing more regularly himself, a fairly common route of entry into the community. Only a few weeks later he joined the Discord and submitted his first run - a 5:22 No Teleporter Any%. Now, with 74 submitted runs, he is one of the top 50 players! He says that one of his favorite aspects of the community is the all-around positivity and encouragement - a stark contrast from the negativity and superiority in many other speedrunning/gaming communities.

 

Bronx’s favorite categories to run are anything with the word “low%” in them, including the harder no% variants! In fact, he held the NG+ No% world record (only for it to be improved upon within the day). A few weeks later, he achieved the impressive Low% time of 3:13, which is his proudest run. Bronx’s contributions to the community don’t end there, however. He pioneered a pasteless Olmec strategy that some players find easier than the previous version (some of my PBs utilize this fight - I like it a lot!), as well as an innovative low% no gold safe fight.

 

In the future, Bronx plans to complete as many categories as possible, which include the two bonuses left for him - Low% Hell and Eggplant%. While these categories are the toughest of the main categories, Bronx certainly has the skill and motivation to complete them! In addition, he’s aiming for a No% completion - a tough category (though not as difficult as most people think), but one that he has the skill for (as his NG+ No% WR proved).

All in all, Bronx has been an excellent addition to our community and a fantastic new player (okay, less new than he was a few months ago). His rivalries with Yandie, Heinz, Suspense, and H0BT0R have given a competitive edge to his runs, and Bronx shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon (except for score, but that’s not a real speed category, now is it). Finally, a sponsored message: Robot sprites > All other sprites. FACT!

You can check out BronxTaco on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bronxtaco

 MossNews World Record Summary: - $6,625,575 Score by d_tea

Posted by GC on March 9th, 2019 @07:59PM

 

The score craze inspired by the render duping discoveries has still not died out yet, it seems. D_tea has now claimed the Score world record for the third time (his second post-duping world record), with an incredible score of $6,625,575, an improvement of $18,950 over the previous record by Kinnijup. The run is chock-full of exciting moments, so let’s jump right into the summary!

Aside from teleporting into an arrow trap which very nearly threw him into spikes, the run gets off to a very smooth start on 1-2 for everyone’s favorite cyclops. With a jetpack, mattock, udjat, and altar gloves, this stereotypical score start had everything except bombs (foreshadowing, perhaps?). With a 1-3 altar, d_tea was able to obtain the kapala and still anger Kali a first time to prepare for some early ball-and-chain strats (which ended up not happening) . Aside from a gem-rich 1-3, it is not until 1-4 that we really start to see this run take off. With a second snake pit and a vault, this is the perfect environment to do some early render duping. Consistently pulling off difficult ghosting tricks with relative ease, he took advantage of conveniently placed pushblocks to dupe the vault for a total individual level score of just under 300k.

Entering the jungle with a near fresh mattock, Tea’s low bomb count is not a pressing issue. Tea also locates the Black Market entrance in the bottom of 2-1, allowing an early resource boost. One interesting choice is that d_tea chose to break the pots by whipping or throwing them to save a bomb (which turned out to be very useful later on). As some of the old-timers know, d_tea has been infamous for getting very low-bomb count BMs. Unfortunately, this streak continues with a skimpy 9-bomb Black Market. However, not all is lost! A very fortunate hired help save at the beginning of the level allowed Tea to begin implementing the powerful HH dupes much earlier that expected. Although it did cost him a few bombs in the later levels to create safespots, the money gained by taking advantage of early HH dupes far offset the resource cost. After skillfully dispensing with the shopkeepers, tea collects the money and exits the level $100k richer. Tea makes short work of the next two levels while taking full advantage of his early lead by attempting to dupe nearly every gem, and using clever bomb placement to have a guaranteed vault HH dupe in 2-3. D_tea exits the jungle 6 bombs, $422k, and 1 HH richer than he entered.

One major disadvantage for Tea entering the Ice Caves is his lack of a mitt, which makes finding safespots considerable harder. He does manage to make one in 3-1 by manipulating a UFO into mining a hole (right in the middle of the level, which leads to some scary ghosting), and uses similar strats in 3-2. D_tea opts to anger Kali once again, and ends up Ball-and-Chaining the rest of 3-1, breaking the $1 million benchmark. Dealing with the ghost, a HH, and the BnC all at the same time is no mean feat for even the top score runners. 3-3 is another action-packed level, featuring a vault, a shop, the Moai, and even some more Ball-and-Chaining (this time with a perma-ghost). After an attempted dupe on the vault (which did not work to full efficiency), tea continues on to 3-4. Not needing the HH anymore, as he’ll get the robot in the Mothership anyway, tea “disposes of” (read : brutally sacrifices) his now-unneeded teammate. After a predictably explodey Mothership, our hero exits with a powerful alien explosive weapon and a robot programmed to murder anything it sees (what could go wrong?). A convenient early safespot in 3-4-2 allows tea to enter the Temple after an astonishing $740k Ice Caves.

d_tea performing a thwomp dupe in 4-1


4-1, considered by many score runners the trickiest (or at least most stressful) level in the game, goes relatively smoothly for d_tea, as he quickly finds a 2-bomb safespot and disposes of Anubis. Tea manages to rack up an astounding $1.18 million in this vault level by performing his signature thwomp dupe. After another million dollar dupe in 4-2 (a Kali pit level), tea enters the legendary City of Gold just a tiny bit under the previous world record. Despite having a lavafall and some unfortunate mummy wrappings, tea performs a series of HH dupes to collect an impressive $1.38 million, the most profitable level in the run. The boss Olmec proves to be no match for our orange cannon-wielding friend, as he systematically destroys all of Olmec’s lair and steals its riches (including 9 bombs, the same measly amount tea obtained in the Black Market), and he enters Hell well above the $5.5 million mark.

Hell, however, claimed its first victim as the suicidal robot dramatically threw itself onto spikes early in 5-1. Tea, however, continues on despite this tragedy and manages to rake in the money on the later Hell levels, taking in $650k between 5-2 and 5-3 (including collecting nearly $380k in 5-2, despite a lavafall)! D_tea finishes up the end of the run in strong form, dispatching the Lord of the Underworld with ease before stealing his wealth and exiting in just over two and a half minutes. With a final score of $6,625,575, d_tea secured the world record by $18,950.

GG Tea!



SPLITS:

Mines: $521,400
Jungle: $422,125
Ice Caves: $740,150
Temple: $3,855,500
Hell: $1,086,400

Total: $6,625,575

Full splits on Primotendo

 Introducing: MossRanking Achievements and Tiers

Posted by Kinnijup on January 7th, 2019 @01:07PM

 

Hey everyone. This is a new feature getting added to MossRanking in the coming weeks, just for fun. We assigned 5 tiers to many of the individual categories. They are available to players of all skill levels, and the first tier always consists of just completing the category (except for some score runs).

 

Then, we combined similar categories into groups and created achievements. You need to reach the tier in each category of an achievement to acquire that achievement. There are only two exceptions to this rule. First is the Challenger achievement, which has 5 categories (No%, Landmine%, Showball%, Key to Yama and Udjat Run). Here, you gain a tier for each category completed. The other exception is the Moss Tier achievement. In this achievement, a tier is gained each time all of your runs in Mosspoint categories meet the following criteria: all completed, all 20%, all 40%, all 60%, all 80%.

 

Here's an example: Speedrunner tier 3 (blue background) is achieved when a runner has satisfied the tier 3 requirements for all included categories, which are Any%, Hell% and Low%. Tier 3 times for those categories are sub 3, sub 8 and sub 4, respectively. Lower tiers must be met to achieve a higher tier (you can’t be at tier 3 without satisfying tier 1 and 2).

 

Here is a nice graphic saturnin made to give you an idea of what this is going to look like (the colors chosen for the background of each icon reflect the coloring of the worlds in Spelunky - gray background signifies inactive/no achievement). Some have creative names:

 

MossRanking Achievement Tiers

The specific categories in each of these achievements will be revealed later, but you can get an idea of what some of them will consist of from their names.

 

Happy Spelunking,

 

- Kinnijup

 

 

 Spelunky Discord Community Awards 2018: Winners

Posted by hb on December 31st, 2018 @04:57PM

 

Last week, the winners of the 2018 Spelunky Discord Community Awards were announced as part of a live stream by Grooomp, Kinnijup, and ix. But in case you missed it, here's a text article confirming which of the nominees won.

 

For each category, the percentages of the top three nominees are revealed. Aside from the winner, all nominees are listed in alphabetical order (except for Best Kapala Cup Moment, which is listed in chronological order) and not in order of votes. The majority of winners are also accompanied by a short written blurb highlighting why they shone in 2018.

 

Congratulations to all winners and nominees, and happy new year.

 

Favourite Spelunky Streamer

 

WINNER

Kinnijup (40%)

 

 

Kinnijup wins the award for a second consecutive year. Comfortably drawing the biggest numbers in the community, the number-one ranked Spelunky player proved as popular as ever on Twitch in 2018. The addition of regular voice and face-cams engaged viewers even further, and the huge score runs in the tail end of the year were not only gripping and memorable but also informed viewers not in the Discord server about duping discoveries and Hired Hand strategies.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

chocolatecake5000 - 3RD (11%)

ix - 2ND (17%)

Mazerak

ShinGraywords

Spef

Vlad

 

--

 

Newcomer of the Year

 

WINNER

Carlibraun (47%)

 

 

Carlibraun takes the award by a large margin, having enjoyed a fruitful first year in competitive play. He became an incredibly active member in the Discord server and finished the year on MossRanking in the top 40 with close to 540,000 Moss Points (before the impending formula changes), while also providing plenty of entertaining streams. One of Carlibraun’s highlights was providing the winning moment for Team World under pressure and with 1HP in the final race of the Kapala World Cup.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Baq - 3RD (14%)

Beens

Geordie May Cry - 2ND (17%)

samcv

tuabiht

Yandie

 

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Favourite Spelunky Commentator

 

WINNER

ix (40%)

 

 

ix has been the most prominent commentator in the Spelunky community, and for good reason. While ix is often praised for his humour and entertaining commentating style, it would be a disservice to ignore how informative and accessible his commentary can be particularly for the more casual Spelunky viewers, of which there were many across the numerous events MossRanking held in 2018. ix seems to be a natural fit in practically any pairing, and also provided commentary at AGDQ and GDQx.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Beens - 3RD (14%)

Kinnijup - 2ND (20%)

Lauren

meowmixmix

Spef

Vlad

 

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Most Improved Player

 

WINNER

chocolatecake5000 (38%)

 

 

chocolatecake5000 edged Kirby703 in a two-horse race, impressing the community with his rapid improvement over the past twelve months. chocolatecake5000 has shot up to 16th in the MossRanking leaderboard (before the impending formula changes), and is a regular and enjoyable streamer. Some of his highlights in 2018 include Speedlunky Low Hell% (7:49.670) and No Gold Hell% (7:59.503) runs and a $3.9 million score run. He also came fourth place in the All Shortcuts + Olmec 2018 tournament.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

GruntingCrunchy - 3RD (15%)

Kirby703 - 2ND (32%)

Mazerak

TheNitromeFan

 

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Daily Challenge Scout of the Year

 

WINNER

84BombsJetpack (61%)

 

 

84BombsJetpack is the runaway winner, securing the biggest overall percentage and the biggest winning margin in any award category this year. A skilled player in his own right, he is known for his commitment in providing thorough and well-formatted scouts. 84BombsJetpack is happy to leave the Hired Hand and duping strats to the likes of d_tea, Kinnijup, and Mazerak. But a large number of the daily score PBs of all skill levels were made possible by his scouting, and this award recognises that.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

hb - =2ND (11%)

Kinnijup

Mazerak

MNC mascot - =2ND (11%)

saturnin55 - =2ND (11%)

 

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Spelunky Community MVP

 

WINNER

hb (44%)

 

 

Thank you for everyone who voted. It’s flattering, particularly given the amazing community members who were also nominated in this category. As it turns out, saturnin55 and I were tied going into the final few hours before the voting closed, and one final single vote was the deciding factor. saturnin55 was the person I personally voted for: his continued dedication to MossRanking is awe-inspiring, and I couldn’t have done the Kapala World Cup without his help. Thank you, saturnin55. You’re my winner.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

ix - 3RD (8%)

Kinnijup

meowmixmix

saturnin55 - 2ND (42%)

Spef

 

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Favourite World Record

 

WINNER

Spef - Udjat Run (35:25, 1st completion) (54%)

 

 

Spef stunned the community with the first ever completion of an udjat run. The udjat run originated as a meme which hardly anyone expected to be completed. MilcMan popularised it, and the likes of Kinnijup, Konato_K, and ix have tried over the years. But Spef achieved the near-impossible, showing an extraordinary level of patience, perseverance, and high-level and intelligent play to bring the udjat to Yama and kill him with it. Spef’s Tutorial% world record was wonderful as well.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Kinnijup - Low% (2:32) - =2ND (11%)

Kinnijup - Hell% (3:30)

Kinnijup - Score (6.6m) - =2ND (11%)

Krille71 - No Gold% (1:50) - =2ND (11%)

Spef - Tutorial% (1:14)

 

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Best All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament 2018 Race

 

WINNER

MikeIsMyIke vs. Grooomp - Mike's comeback win (29%)

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

chocolatecake5000 vs. Vlad - into Olmec together - =3RD (14%)

d_tea vs. Spef (Grand Finals) - d_tea wins the tournament - =3RD (14%)

ix vs. TheNitomeFan - 12-second win

Mazerak vs. curticus - 18:45/19:41 first-round match - =3RD (14%)

samcv vs. meowmixmix - samcv pulls off upset win - 2ND (21%)

 

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Best Kapala World Cup Moment

 

WINNER

Day 3: AS+O 4v4 Relay (Finale) - MikeIsMyIke survives dark 2-4 and ice caves with 1HP on key split (36%)

 

 

MikeIsMyIke wins both Best All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament 2018 Race and Best Kapala World Cup Moment. His key split in the Kapala World Cup was perhaps the most nerve-wracking moment in the entire tournament. In the winner-takes-all final race, Mike was entrusted by Team World captain Vlad with delivering the key. He dropped to 1HP in 2-3, and had to endure a scarily dark 2-4 and then the whole ice caves without taking any damage whatsoever, knowing that a death would hand a clear tournament advantage to Team USA. Mike did it, handing the baton off to Carlibraun, and the rest is history. A wonderful final race to cap off the Kapala World Cup.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Day 1: All Journal Entries Co-op - ix and Kirby703 win with a sub-26 time - 2ND (18%)

Day 2: Temple Shortcut% (Tier 4) - Maplestrip beats Yandie with neck-and-neck Olmec fight - 3RD (15%)

Day 2: All Journal Entries 1v1 (Tier 1) - ix wins in troll RNG race

Day 3: Low Hell% (Tier 1) - Kinnijup completes a 9:00 run in high-quality Grind race

Day 3: AS+O 4v4 Relay (Finale) - Carlibraun wins it for Team World with 1HP fast Olmec fight

 

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Spelunky Moment of the Year

 

WINNER

Kapala World Cup trailer by Suspense (34%)

 

 

Suspense’s masterful Kapala World Cup trailer came out on top of the Spelunky 2 gameplay trailer, and it is well-deserved. Edited to Little Dragon song ‘Please Turn’, the trailer -- which showcased the participants’ finest Twitch clips in quickfire fashion -- had the community buzzing. Every time the trailer was played during the Kapala World Cup, the enthusiasm from Twitch chat was palpable as they quoted the clips in unison. Suspense’s trailer no doubt played its part in hyping up the tournament. A shout-out to Konato_K for the trophy artwork, which is also featured in the trailer.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Render duping discoveries by Spelunky scientists - 3RD (18%)

Score world record explosion with Kinnijup, Mazerak, and d_tea

Spelunky 2 gameplay trailer - 2ND (24%)

Spelunky at AGDQ 2018 with Kinnijup (January 2018)

Spelunky at GDQx 2018 with meowmixmix (October 2018)

 

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Best Moss Points Category

 

WINNER

All Shortcuts + Olmec (28%)

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Hell%

Low%

Low Hell% - 2ND (22%)

No Teleporter Any%

Score - 3RD (16%)

 

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Best Meme Category

 

WINNER

Udjat Run (38%)

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Death% - =3RD (11%)

Draining Olmec - =3RD (11%)

Temple Shortcut% - 2ND (32%)

Tutorial High Score

 

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Best Miscellaneous Category

 

WINNER

All Journal Entries (32%)

 

 

OTHER NOMINEES

All Achievements - 3RD (14%)

Low% Score

Max Low No Gold Hell%

No% - 2ND (27%)

Shield Run

 

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Best Speedrun Challenge

 

WINNER

Tetris (44%)

 

 

Tetris became the biggest Speedrun Challenge of the year with more than 20 active members of the community trying to achieve the fastest 100-line sprint time they could. Friendly rivalries formed and some got deep into learning about terms like finesse, as the challenge culminated in a special tournament, only the second time it has happened after Celeste. Kirby703 was the primary driving factor and influence behind the Tetris Speedrun Challenge. She provided the inspiration for the nomination in the vote, mesmerised the Discord channel with her ridiculously fast times, and organised and co-commentated the tournament (which she also won with ease).

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Celeste - 2ND (38%)

Crypt of the NecroDancer - 3RD (19%)

 

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Game of the Year 2018

 

WINNER

Celeste (45%)

 

 

Celeste may not have won Best Speedrun Challenge, but the platformer did capture the attention of a sizeable percentage of the community when it came out in January. Tight and rewarding platforming coupled with a heartfelt story which touched on topics such as anxiety, Celeste impressively emerged as the winner ahead of a number of blockbuster-budget releases.

 

OTHER NOMINEES

Detroit: Become Human - 3RD (12%)

Into the Breach

Monster Hunter: World

Red Dead Redemption 2

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 2ND (18%)

 

 Spelunky Discord Community Awards 2018: Nominations Announcement

Posted by hb on December 9th, 2018 @12:35AM

 

The nominations have been counted. Now, we can reveal the final nominees for all 15 categories of the 2018 Spelunky Discord Community Awards.

 

The default number of nominees for each category is six, but some have five or seven based on nomination points. Best Speedrun Challenge has three nominees, due to the smaller nature of the category. All nominees are listed in alphabetical order in this article, with the exception of Best Kapala World Cup Moment which is presented in chronological order.

 

The final round of voting has now opened -- you can vote here.

 

The deadline for voting is Saturday 15 December at 23:59 GMT / 18:59 ET / 15:59 PT.

 

Favourite Spelunky Streamer

chocolatecake5000

ix

Kinnijup

Mazerak

ShinGraywords

Spef

Vlad

 

Newcomer of the Year

Baq

Beens

Carlibraun

Geordie May Cry

samcv

tuabiht

Yandie

 

Favourite Spelunky Commentator

Beens

ix

Kinnijup

Lauren

meowmixmix

Spef

Vlad

 

Most Improved Player

chocolatecake5000

GruntingCrunchy

Kirby703

Mazerak

TheNitromeFan

 

Daily Challenge Scout of the Year

84BombsJetpack

hb

Kinnijup

Mazerak

MNC mascot

saturnin55

 

Spelunky Community MVP

hb

ix

Kinnijup

meowmixmix

saturnin55

Spef

 

Favourite World Record

Kinnijup - Low% (2:32)

Kinnijup - Hell% (3:30)

Kinnijup - Score (6.6m)

Krille71 - No Gold% (1:50)

Spef - Tutorial% (1:14)

Spef - Udjat Run (35:25, 1st completion)

 

Best All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament 2018 Race

chocolatecake5000 vs. Vlad - into Olmec together

d_tea vs. Spef (Grand Finals) - d_tea wins the tournament

ix vs. TheNitomeFan - 12-second win

Mazerak vs. curticus - 18:45/19:41 first-round match

MikeIsMyIke vs. Grooomp - Mike's comeback win

samcv vs. meowmixmix - samcv pulls off upset win

 

Best Kapala World Cup Moment

Day 1: All Journal Entries Co-op - ix and Kirby703 win with a sub-26 time

Day 2: Temple Shortcut% (Tier 4) - Maplestrip beats Yandie with neck-and-neck Olmec fight

Day 2: All Journal Entries 1v1 (Tier 1) - ix wins in troll RNG race

Day 3: Low Hell% (Tier 1) - Kinnijup completes a 9:00 run in high-quality Grind race

Day 3: AS+O 4v4 Relay (Finale) - MikeIsMyIke survives dark 2-4 and ice caves with 1HP on key split

Day 3: AS+O 4v4 Relay (Finale) - Carlibraun wins it for Team World with 1HP fast Olmec fight

 

Spelunky Moment of the Year

Kapala World Cup trailer by Suspense

Render duping discoveries by Spelunky scientists

Score world record explosion with Kinnijup, Mazerak, and d_tea

Spelunky 2 gameplay trailer

Spelunky at AGDQ 2018 with Kinnijup (January 2018)

Spelunky at GDQx 2018 with meowmixmix (October 2018)

 

Best Moss Points Category

All Shortcuts + Olmec

Hell%

Low%

Low Hell%

No Teleporter Any%

Score

 

Best Meme Category

Death%

Draining Olmec

Temple Shortcut%

Tutorial High Score

Udjat Run

 

Best Miscellaneous Category

All Achievements

All Journal Entries

Low% Score

Max Low No Gold Hell%

No%

Shield Run

 

Best Speedrun Challenge

Celeste

Crypt of the NecroDancer

Tetris

 

Game of the Year 2018

Celeste

Detroit: Become Human

Into the Breach

Monster Hunter: World

Red Dead Redemption 2

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

 

To vote, click here and fill out this form.