Hi all --

Sorry for the short notice, but I am happy to announce another edition of The Grind.  This weekend, we'll get to see Kinnijup, saturnin, Carlibraun, and Abob attempting to complete a No% run. Hop on over to the MossRanking Twitch Channel this Sunday at Noon Eastern to see these living legends of Spelunky attempt a truly remarkable challenge.

The commentary team has not yet been finalized, but will include at least one of the six truly elite runners who has finished this category.  Hope to see a bunch of you there!

Love,

ix

Hi all --

Here's another vlog edition of Moss News featuring ix and chococlatecake50000.  Hope you enjoy it!

The All Achievements tracker, by Sawr, is available on Github.  Also, for a bit of houskeeping, here are the last two versions, featuring ix and Kinnijup!

That's all folks.  Enjoy!

Love,

ix

Hi all!

Just a quick announcement... The Grind #5 is scheduled for May 20 at 1 pm Eastern Time.  The event will be streamed live on the MossRanking Twitch channel.  BONUS: Another edition of the Moss News Vodcast will broadcast at noon, one hour before the event!

We'll get to see Kinnijup, curticus, falafel_raptor, and twiggle attempt a variety of low% hell variants.  The commentary team will include yours truly, ix, Polo, Pojo, and Khold!

Hope to see a ton of people for this one!

Love,

ix

Hi all --

The MossNews team continues to experiment with our format.  This week, Kinnijup and ix recorded a Vodcast featuring replays and commentary on all of the community's PBs and WRs.  We will premiere this LIVE on MossRanking's Twitch Channel tomorrow (Saturday) at 8 pm Eastern Time.  VOD will be available here and on the MossRanking YouTube page afterwards!

Cya all soon!

-ix

 Hi all --

Derek Yu's My Favorite Games has held the spotlight on here for long enough. It's time to get back to some SPELUNKY PBs!

The biggest point-gainer since the last news was our own GruntingCrunchy.  After a brief vacation from the game, he's back with an astonishing 583,823 Moss Points, good enough for #37 overall on the main rankings.  Definitely someone to keep an eye on as he moves further up the leaderboard. I don't know where to start given that he submitted runs in 27 categories, and multiple submissions for a few of these.  Instead, I'll let everyone bask in the fun and insanity that was his 5 hour, 38 minute All Achievements run (#3 all time).  Welcome back, old friend!

Another feel-good story was the sudden burst of PBs by a relatively obscure American speedrunner, Kinnijup.  For starters, he cut 16 seconds off of his own Max Any% No Gold world record, setting a new best time of 2:36.255.  The old WR had stood for nearly two years, and this one is likely to belong to Kinni for the forseeable future.  Only six runners have Max Any% times faster than 2:36, and among these, only d_tea, SG, and Pibonacci also have No Gold times below that mark.  Truly remarkable stuff, although this is probably the fourth most impressive of Kinni's world records this news cycle.  He also set a new mark of 5:12.423 in the Low% Hell category.  This is an astonishing improvement largely due to a new Olmec+Anubis 2 strategy (YOLO).  His 41-second Olmec fight plus a 1:04 Hell split combined for and endgame that was more than 30 seconds faster than his previous PB.  Is Sub-5 on the horizon?

Kinni also had a breakthrough in the popular Low% category.  On April 17, he got a 2:34.158, cutting 0.2 seconds off his old WR thanks to a fairly precise Olmec finish.  Still, his time was only 0.3 seconds ahead of curt's WR from August, 2016, which is equivalent to an accidental flip hang somewhere in a run, or the extra animation from exiting a door slightly off center.  On April 26, he blew up the category completely with a 2:32.144.  The entire run is the highlight, so watch it all.  The slowest level was 10 seconds flat on 2-4, and a clutch 5.3-second final level set up the opportunity for the WR, which Kinni snatched. GGs!

chocolatecake5000 was another prolific runner this new cycle.  Most notably, he got a $2,664,650 Score Run (also a Jumbo Money completion), a more than $1 million improvement from his last PB, and worth a fat stack of Moss Points. He also... went fast.  He got a 3:34 Low%, a 6:45 Hell%, and a 3:05 No TP Any%!  In the more challenging categories, he got a 4:16 Low% No Gold, and a 8:59 No Gold Hell%.  I was surprised to see that the excellent NGH run earned choco a whopping Z E R O M O S S P O I N T S.  This run is the 17th fastest in the category, which is choco's highest placement among official MossPoint categories; however, he is also #1 in the world in some of Meme Wikia's most dubious categories, including No% True Pacifist Mines, Low% True Pacifist Mines (the same run), Top to Bottom%, Ice Caves Jetpack%, Mine Rope Trick%, Wormbreak%, and the new Reddit sensation, Tiki Man%.

The one remaining member of team ix after Meowmixmix and hbix converted to meow and hb, ix (me), also saw a string of PBs.  The one I'm most proud of is the 5:22 Max Hell%, which is just 14 seconds longer than my Hell% PB (and means I probably squandered a lot Moss Points).  I also got a 2:37 No Gold, which is just 3 seconds longer than my Any% PB (and means I probably squandered a lot of Moss Points).  On the other hand, I made back a few of the points taken from me after Kinni's WR with my own Low% PB of 3:05.  In challenge categories, I reclaimed my second place with a 11:23 Shield Run, which features a pretty smooth Yama fight, and improved my Max Any% No Gold to 4:20.  Finally, I got a 6:49.138 Haunted Max Hell%, shaving 0.2 seconds off a PB dating to last July.

Like fellow Grind #4 competitor, GC, lil_ethie put out a flurry of PBs.  He got a 5:25 Low%, a 5:42 Max Any%, a 6:08 No Gold, a 9:02 Hell%, a 12:45 Max Hell%, and a 14:35 Big Money Run.  Although I didn't watch any of these runs, it's clear to me that this is E5ten's world and we are all just living in it.  Fellow future grinder, Carlibraun, spent some time practicing his late game with a 0:59.3 Temple Shortcut%, and this seems to have paid off!  He also pulled off a 4:17 Haunted Max Any% and a very fast No-TP Any% of 3:06.  Meanwhile, Abob71, who will be commentating ethie and Carli's runs, put up a 4:46 Max Low% and a 3:50 Low% No Gold.

Grind #3 veteran, ShinGraywords also had his moments in the sun this news cycle.  He got a 3:02 No-TP Any%, a 3:17 Max Any%, and a significantly improved 10:54 Low% Hell time.  All three runs are a ton of fun to watch, especially some of the hijinx in the Max Any% run.  Nice work on these!

A couple of top-25 runners had a single run that stands out for them.  DaftLunk finally submitted a Big Money run, and what a doozy this one was.  He got a 7:13, 7th on the leaderboard, and rocketed up the rankings to #19 overall. falafel_raptor got a 5:06 No-TP Max Hell%, which is the third fastest ever.  saturnin55 got a 16:40 Solo Eggplant Run, which is apparently his 11th overall.  Vlad actually had two runs, so he doesn't belong in this section at all, but let's give him a hand for his 2:41 Max Any% and a 4:46 Hell% nonetheless.  NightHarvester pulled off a 4:39 Max Low%.  Once NH figures out Daily Challenges give Moss Points, too, he's going to shoot past a couple more Spelunkers!

Just a few more runs to get to: slink had a 3:48 Low% and a slightly faster 3:46 Any%.  A couple of people had Hell% PBS: Sawr (7:21), Suspense (9:36), tuabiht (11:28), and The Mad Murf (12:32).  For Max Any%, Sawr also got a 7:22, while TicTacFoe got a  3:37.  Pajecka7891 got a 3:39 Low%, and MNC Mascot got a 6:04 Any%.  Finally, Beens got a $907,850 Score Run.

Congrats to all!

Love,

ix

Hi all --

Just a quick announcement:  The Grind #4 will take place on Sunday, April 29 @ Noon Eastern.  We'll watch Carlibraun, E5ten, GruntingCrunchy, and Kirby703 compete in a MossPoint Challenge, with live commentary by me (ix), Meow, Abob, and a special guest!

This event will be a little different from most: the runners will try to compete as many runs as they can to collect MossPoints as if they were starting with a new account.  Every category except for Daily Challenge is fair game.  We'll cheer them on while tracking their progress.

Tune in for the fun on the MossRanking Twitch page!

Love,

ix

Welcome to My Favourite Games, a MossRanking feature in which we get to know our fellow Spelunkers better through the medium of video games. In each edition, we put the spotlight on one member of the community as they pick three of their most treasured video games ever and give their reasons why. Featured members are allowed to pick whatever games they want… except Spelunky.

This special entry goes to the one and only Derek Yu, the mind behind Spelunky - the very game which unites this community.

The vast majority of us have spent hundreds, even thousands, of hours enjoying every nook and cranny Spelunky has to offer, and it is an honour that Derek (whose other game credits include Aquaria and Eternal Daughter) was happy to spare some time to share three of his favourite games.

Let's get started.

Dark Souls

"It's probably not a surprise to anyone at this point, but this is my favourite game ever."

Dark Souls was undoubtedly a landmark game when it first came out in 2011. Developer From Software made some bold design choices - but they had a specific vision in mind and nailed it, resulting in a release which brought back a sense of nostalgia for those who yearned for classic game experiences.

"Dark Souls brought back and modernised the kind of hardcore action and exploration I hadn't really felt from a AAA game since I was a kid," Derek explains. "Mini-maps, quest markers, endless hints, forced tutorials, and quick-time events had become the norm rather than the exception. From Software eschewed all of that and delivered a one-of-a-kind experience that felt truly earned, set in a world inspired more by the early, weird days of Western fantasy, before everything became a slightly different take on orcs and elves."

"Lordran is a place that feels like it existed before you started playing."

And what a world the game delivered. While Dark Souls excelled in its execution of the mechanics, the marriage between how the game played and the setting of Lordran was key to its ultimate enjoyment.

"The care that went into each corner of Lordran made it worth dying again and again to see what horrible dungeon, gorgeous vista, or jaw-dropping boss was next," Derek says. "It's the connectivity that makes Lordran so special - not just the way the map is physically interconnected in all kinds of surprising ways, but also the way everything is connected in terms of the lore. It's a place that feels like it existed before you started playing.

"Dark Souls keeps you playing in the best ways possible, by offering a unique and compelling world to explore and by respecting your time and curiosity."

Super Punch-Out!!

Back in the 1990s, out came Super Punch-Out!!, a boxing game which challenged players to fight their way to the top and become the champion by earning knockouts in a series of individual matches. While Super Punch-Out!! has the appearance of a sports or fighting title, Derek says that its puzzle-like qualities are what make the game so compelling.

"To me, this is Nintendo design at its best: a distillation of a theme to simple but deeply enjoyable mechanics," he comments. "Each opponent has a limited set of attacks that can be countered with a limited set of player moves, and winning involves opponent knowledge moreso than fast reflexes."

^{"Over the years, my appreciation of the game has only grown."}

But it goes deeper than that. The wonderful thing about Super Punch-Out!!, as Derek explains, is that although it may appear very simple and straightforward to play on the surface, matches go beyond simple memorisation.

"You can take a serious beating before coming back and winning," he says. "The game is very generous regarding failure and gives you lots of opportunities to make mistakes and still come back and win the match. Basically, the game wants you to throw lots of punches to try and figure out what works and what doesn't, and there isn't just one way to win. The fastest knockouts require good knowledge and execution, but you can also get away with having either one or the other."

"The funny thing is, despite its simplicity and cartoony quality, Super Punch-Out!! captures the spirit of boxing far better than other 16-bit boxing games that took a more realistic approach to fighting... After all these years of playing and making games, I've come to appreciate how difficult it is to create such a simple and elegant design, especially one that makes such good use of its theme."

Liero

Derek's third game is Liero, a freeware game which has been described as a 'real-time Worms shoot-'em-up' and can be downloaded from its official website.

In Liero, two worms aim to wipe the other out using whatever weapons are at their disposal. But there are very neat gameplay twists involved which combine to provide a consistently entertaining experience, no matter how many matches you play. One of the most notable features about the game is the fact that the terrain is destructible, which can be used to your advantage and influences tactics.

"The arena starts out mostly filled with dirt, but as an armed worm you can create tunnels either by digging or blowing the dirt up with weapons," Derek says. "In essence, the playfield is created in real-time by both players, adding a lot of strategy to the game and making each fight feel unique.

"The destructible terrain and weapon variety create a lot of different match-up variables that are constantly shifting during battle. Some weapons are high-risk and high-reward, some are better at close-range versus long-range, some are good at tunneling through dirt, some are good for blasting out large open areas, and so on."

"The playfield is always changing as more of it gets blown up."

Liero also gives players an extra traversal tool in the form of a ninja rope, which is "hard to master" but rewarding and satisfying when used to outmaneuver the opponent. The ninja rope is the perfect complement to the constantly-changing terrain and wonderful weapon variety.

"You never forget the feeling of swinging across the arena with your ninja rope to deliver a face full of spikeballs to your entrenched opponent - or getting sniped by a gauss gun in the attempt," Derek shares.

"The variety of weapons, the per-pixel terrain destruction, the rope physics, the grunting and bleeding of the worms as they get low on health... it's all polished to a shine while retaining a tonne of charm. The result is honestly one of the best 1v1 games I've ever played, and although it's small, it feels perfectly executed."

Previous entry: Krille71

Hello all and welcome to the first edition of Moss News by me, slink! Come for the news, stay for the stunning prose and hysterical commentary!

I think it's fitting to start this round of news by welcoming one of our newer members, danny_avantasia! Danny (or Geordie) took us all by surprise last week when he came out of nowhere with an impressive 2:12 Any%! This is a great run in its own right for a first submission, but Danny was back a few days later with a Low% No Gold in 3:35! I think it's safe to say that we're all excited to see what Danny posts next, so keep up the great work!

Some of you know him as Spel'unk, master of the RNG. Others know him as Speed-San, Prophet of the Yu God. I just call him Kinnijup!

It wouldn't be a round of Moss News if there wasn't a Kinnijup world record to talk about, so let's talk about it! Kinni posted a new Max Low% Hell record of 7:15, a 15-second improvement on the old record (also held by Kinni, of course). Good job on the new WR Kinni, you've had a great streak recently and I’m sure it's not stopping any time soon. :)

Next up we have Grooomp, who had a massive achievement this week by hitting the 3 million Score milestone with a run ending in $3,129,300! Hitting 3 million is a massive achievement for any Spelunker, so massive congrats to ol' Grooomp for finally getting it. The score PB would have been enough on its own, but Grooomp also decided to demolish his old Big Money, getting a sweet time of 7:41.

ix had some time off from the newsroom this week, and I've heard he's been jet skiing in the Bahamas with supermodels. He must have been playing some Spelunky too, because he got a couple new PBs in, including a WR 4:39 in the new Haunted Max Any% No Gold category! ix also got an 8:02 No TP Max Hell No Gold. GG on the PBs ix, not long until that sweet Temple rank...

DaftLunk has clearly been 'up all night to get lucky' because he's scored a myriad of PBs since our last news cycle. First there is a 2:46 No Teleporter No Gold Any%, followed by another sub-3 Low% improvement with a time of 2:57. Daft also knocked a whole minute off his Draining Olmec with a nice 4:30 (Top 10 All Time). Good job Daft, Olmec always had too much lava anyways.

ShinGraywords has got a couple new PBs this month, posting a 5:08 Hell% run that knocked 20 seconds off his old time. Only 8 more seconds til sub-5! Shin also made a heckin amount of progress on his Score PB. He got a $2.4 million and improved it a few days later with an even higher $2.8 million! Nice one Shin, I'm sure you'll have that coveted $3 million soon...

Anyone hungry? Because there's a triple serving of chocolatecake5000 this week, with three titillating new PBs. Choco clocked in a smooth 2:38 Any% (a 12-second improvement), a 6:49 Hell% and a Haunted Max Any No Gold in 7:00. Choco has made a disturbing amount of progress recently and I wouldn't be surprised if he finished the year with a Top 25 slot. Good job Choco, keep up the good work.

NightHarvester has continued to flex his Spelunking muscles this month, finally achieving the sub-3 Low% dream with a time of 2:59! Sub-3 is a massive milestone achievement and Night has been working at it for a long time, so congrats! He also posted an 8:20 No Gold Hell%, and a 6:27 Max Hell%, further cementing his position as one of the top British Spelunkers. Good job man!

Up next, we have old-timer Buddy7theElf, who stopped by to post a 6:23 No TP Max Hell%, shaving 5-minutes off his old time. Good job Buddy. What's your favorite color?

There must have been something in the water this week because falafel_raptor also posted a No TP Max Hell%, getting a time of 5:12, which is the third fastest time ever recorded in this category! Falafel probably could have left it there, but also dropped a 4:10 Hell%, which is also a top 10 finish for that cat. GG!

BisleyT is up next with a No Gold in 12:40. It's nearly been a whole year since Bisley submitted his last run, so it's great to see them back and posting in the community again! Great job on the run Bisley, hopefully we'll see more from you soon!

Next up to the bat, we have Sawr, who completed a Hell% (No TP) in 8:28! Sawr has submitted quite a few runs recently and made some real progress. This latest Hell PB is a 4-minute improvement on their last time, and only 28 seconds away from the coveted Speedlunky Hell.

JakeYoshimitsu stepped up to the plate to deliver a Big Money in 8:11, a three-minute improvement on his last Big Money! Good job Yoshimitsu, it's good to see you found some work outside of Tekken...

Next up is one of my current MossRank rivals and PB mirror twin, Suspense21! Suspense has had a great month with his first No Gold, clocking in at a respectable 6:27. After that Suspense also posted an 11:59 Max Hell%, knocking nearly seven minutes off his previous best and clutching sub-12 by a second! Good job Suspense, I'm sure you'll bop me again soon (just buy me dinner first). 

TicTacFoe got a nice No TP Any% in 3:30 as part of his pentathlon run. Keep up the good Tic Tactics, Tic!

MossRank architect Saturnin55 made a quick check in with a Draining Olmec in 5:11, which is another great PB for a meme category that has seen a lot of action this month. Nice one Sat. :)

PrincessSnuggleDashie had a few good runs to post since the last news cycle. Their first was a $411k Score, followed by a 30:48 Hell% and a 13:41 Any%! Nice job Princess, keep posting those PB's.

MolestedHydra (aka Betty) is continuing to make good progress up the rankings. Hydra got a cool 13:03 Max Any%, a 24:03 Max Hell%, and even jumped on the meme train with a Draining Olmec time of 14:30. Nice one Hyrda. Keep it up!

Some bozo called slink got a few runs in, getting a 6:41 Max Any%, and a 6:40 Low No Gold%. I wonder what he'll get next...?

samcv made a quick appearance after getting an All Shortcuts + Olmec time of 27:09! Great job on the new PB sam and finally getting sub-30. Only a few more points until you hit jungle rank!

E5ten had a lot of firsts this week, his first being a Max Low% in 8:36. Ethis has been struggling with Low% No Gold recently (as I have) but finally cracked the tough category with a time of 8:41! Ethis clearly was content to clean up some old PBs after this, and posted a 6:29 Low%, followed by an Any% in 4:26.

tuahbit got a new Max Any% PB with a time of 8:26. Good job on the improvement tuahbit and congrats on the sub-9!

Mario tends to be the favorite Mario brother for most people, but I’ve always preferred luigidude851. Luigi posted a 4:46 Any% this week, gaining a one-minute improvement on his old PB. You might say it was 1-Up. 1-Up! …Get it?

Did someone say Marco? Because to finish us off we have Polo, who shaved a few more seconds off his Hell% run with a great time of 5:05, creeping ever closer to that elusive sub-5. GG and keep up the good work Polo, I’m sure you'll get it soon!

GG to everyone on all the great runs and gl for whatever goals you currently have. I'm sure there's still a bit of progress to be made on homework handed out by Kinni recently, so get to work! slink out!

-slink

Hi all-

Our video crew is in the process of compiling a WR compilation video, but in the meantime, we have a ton of runs from people not named Kinnijup.  If you're a person who needs moving pictures to feel complete, here's the ix Play of the Day.  This week it's a short clip from a runner named ix:

The March 26, 2018 Daily Challenge was big for the MossRankers, with serveral of us getting new Daily PBs.  saturnin55 won the daily with a score of $2.9 million, edging out DieDai's $2.8 million, and chocolatecake5000's $1.6 million.  Dupe-master Spef also knocked out a $2.6 million run before succumbing to Olmec.  Polo also fell late in the run, but still managed to PB with $1.6 million ($20k more than chocolatecake, in case anyone's keeping score).  Kirby703 also set a Daily PB this week with a $1.3 million on March 30.

In other score news, Grooomp set a new PB of $2.4 million.  This is his first score PB since 2016, and hopefully a nice confidence booster that he can survive the Mothership and pull off Robo strats.

Abob71 completed a Low% No Gold run in 4:47 and a No Gold Hell% in 12:46, lowering his times by a total of about 13 seconds.  Abob lost a lot of time in the City of Gold in his NGH run.  I wonder if there are any strategies for getting to the Book of the Dead without splashing gold everywhere?

Carlibraun had a 7:11 Draining Olmec, finding jetpacks on 1-2 and 2-3, plus a spare in a Psychic Presence level on 3-1..  I think it's fair to say that this is probably one of the top-3 Drainmecs of the past week.

DaftLunk had a string of big PBs, launching himelf into the top-25 and earning the Ice Cave Ruby rank.  Immediately after The Grind #3: Low% edition, he pulled off a 2:59 Low%.  A few days later, he nailed a 2:48 No Gold run that doubles as his No Teleporter Any% PB.  To celebrate, he spent some time with the memes, finishing a 5:30 Draining Olmec.

What could be better than a 2:48 No TP Any?  DieDai's got the answer.  He undercut DaftLunk with a 2:47 and also gained a few Moss Points by lowering his Big Money to 8:24.  For good measure, he also pulled off his fourth Solo Eggplant Run in only 17:02.

Someone named Horseb rocketed up the leaderboard this week. Previously this runner had only a $1,000 Daily High Score, but added a nice portfolio of runs including a 6:34 Hell%, 3:48 Low%, and a 3:33 Any% (also No TP).  Pretty, pretty good.

Probably my favorite run of the week was ix's 4:31 Max Any% No Gold.  Just the natural product of hard work, dedication, innate talent.  Alright, we're done here.

NightHarvester continues to pump out strong PBs.  This week, they include a 5:04 Max Low%, a 6:35 Max Hell%, and a 6:50 Basejump%.  Notably, his run was the second fastest ever in the category behind Kinnijup's 5:33, not counting BJs that ended prematurely.

In addition to his Daily PB, Polo also finished a 2:48 Max Any% and a 3:32 Low% No Gold.  I had stated before that DaftLunk was the runner most likely to pass me next on the leaderboard, but might have to take that back after these runs, especially since Polo has taken a renewed interest in Daily Challenges.  The sky's the limit for the French Champion!

Sawr, who now has a name with entirely standard ASCII characters, got a string of PBs this week.  He got a 3:44 Low%, which also serves as his Any% No TP and Any% PBs.  He also got a 6:15 Low% No Gold, which also serves as his no Gold PB -- a great way to break two penalties with one run!  He also got a 12:47 Hell%, which... yeah man, no teleporters to be seen here.

slink continues to grind out Moss Points.  This week, he cut 22 seconds off of his 4:11 Any% PB and cancelled two stubborn penalties with an 11:27 Max Hell% and a 14:13 Big Money.  Lots of room to grow here, but it's good to put up a few completed runs as splits to run against in the future.

Vlad had two runs in minor categories this week.  He got a 5:10 No Teleporter Hell% and a 3:03 No TP No Gold Any%.  For these runs, he was awarded Z E R O M O S S P O I N T S.

A few other runners submitted a single run this week, so here are their shoutouts!  Dr. Probably and Pajecka7891 got Hell% runs of 8:25 and 6:25, respectively.  Kirby703 and tuabiht completed Max Any% in 10:00 and 4:53, disrespectively.  Cloiss and Stuoid both got No TP Any% PBs.  Their times were 4:27 and 2:51, but i'm not going to tell you who got which time.  Finally, Suspense21 got an 18:48 Max Hell%.

Okay, bye :)

-ix

Hi all --

Our video editors are on strike, demanding a living wage of Moss Points in exchange for new content.  So, I'm here crossing the picket line to deliver another text edition of Moss News!

The biggest development that I'm allowed to cover this week are the trio of Max Low% Hell runs.  falafel_raptor led the way with a 15:57.  The run was also No Gold until the City of Gold exit, which was blocked by gold from a dead shopkeeper.  While it was unfortunate for shopkeepers to even be aggo'ed that late into a Low% Hell run, a first Max Low% Hell completion is a nice consolation prize!

Next up, NightHarvester completed a run in 25:00.  The run featured a clutch overhead skull whip after his first pass at grabbing Yama's head failed.  Nice little sequence by NH to keep the run alive!

Polo also completed a run in 18:20.  Some of you may remember Polo as one of the most vocal opponents of the "ix strat" of collecting $50,000 to buy the Ankh in the Black Market. For months and months, he railed against it as dishonorable, but also dubbed the strat "not very helpful."  For some reason, he eventually tried it out for himself and completed Low% Hell on his very first attempt.  Since then, he's vowed to replace this run with a "pure" run that fully embraces shopkeeper aggro.  In fact, the recent French Championship rulebook even prohibited Ankh-purchasing for their Low% Hell race.  So, it came as somewhat of a surprise to me to see that Polo's run included yet another aggro-free BM:

The big MossPoint gainer this week was DaftLunk.  After last week's insane 1:51 Any% run, he boosted his Score PB by $465k with a $2,285,600, which unfortunately died at Olmec.  He also knocked off a No Gold Hell% penalty with an 8:35.  This run was completed without paste, using only a Cape for mobility.  The Yama fight is... a little silly.  He also uploaded a $299,400 Low% Score run, the third-highest valid run in this category.  Daft is on the verge of knocking saturnin out of his #25 rank, so stay tuned for information about "the new-and-improved Moss Point formula" he's been working on!

Beens, who represents one half of my favorite variety-streamer couple, Pork&Beens, and who also uses the name Pork&Beens on MossRanking for some reason, got a 7:32.882 Max Any%.  I tuned in to check to see if she was making any more progress today, and, uh... a snail, ok. :)

Suspense was among the most prolific Spelunkers in the past week with five PBs.  For starters, he got a 3:57 Any% (also no-TP), which lowers his PB by over 30 seconds.  Congrats on the sub-4!  He got a 27:01 All Shortcuts + Olmec that also featured a 1:37 Tutorial.  To round things out, he got a 29:23 Big Money run, which I originally confused as his AS+O time.  I caught him on stream and asked if there were any cool plays I should highlight, since I didn't have time to watch all of his runs.  He read off all of his PBs and told me they were all crazy and to go watch them.  Soon after, he died on Olmec, in a run still good enough for a Daily High Score PB of $829,725.

TicTacFoe was also very busy!  He got an 8:07 Hell% run, a 10:26 Max Hell%, and a 1:10 Temple Shortcut.  Cool stuff!

Carlibraun continues to give up on his dream of a No% completion make progress on the leaderboards.  He got a 3:27 Low% that doubles as an Any% PB, and also a 1:08 Temple Shortcut - both very nice runs!

lil_ethie posted a couple of runs one might expect from someone named "fast_ethan."  He knocked off his penalty for No Gold Hell% with a 17:35, utilizing another "ix strat" of bombing below the Book of the Dead room.  He also got a 6:19 Max Any% and set a Daily High Score PB of nearly $1.4 million.  ethie's student, Betty, also grinded out a 44:49 Big Money that doubles as a Score PB ($543,725).

Just a couple more runs to cover. Two runners got big Low% No Gold PBs: chocolatecake5000 got a 4:31, and Khold got a 3:52.  Grooomp got a 2:31 Max Any%.  Some guy with weird non-ASCII characters in his or her name got a 4:58 Low%.  slink got a Low% PB of 4:39, bumping him up to #69 on the leaderboard... Nice. Maplestrip got a 1:10 Tutorial Shortcut.  Finally, The Mad Murf got an 8:50 Max Any% and a $1.9 million score run.

That's all for now, but the clever reader might have noticed that a few runs were not covered in this edition of the news.  Maybe they'll show up in a later video edition?  Time will tell!  Also, make sure to show up for The Grind #3 this Saturday at Noon Eastern Daylight Time.

-ix