CTGP Tracks Done Backwards – Castle of Time Complete Solution (19/218)

In this video, I drive a full lap of the custom track Castle of Time backwards with the 3 mushrooms available in time trials. However, because it doesn’t require any of them, I don’t use any of them. In order for a track to count as being completed backwards, you must start in lap 1 and travel through all of lap 0 backwards, finishing by reaching lap -1. We will be going through the tracks of the CTGP 1.03-1112 update (29 Sep 2021) alphabetically, and returning to any past tracks if breakthroughs are made that change the statistics of the progression of the challenge (more on this later in the description).

Playlist of these videos: https://bit.ly/ctgpbackwards

Here, there are NO respawns that are mandatory to complete the track backwards, and there are NO sections requiring any mushrooms. This is known as a complete solution and is the final state a track can be in, ignoring timesaves.

There are 11 blocks on this track:
1. Getting onto the last ramp
2. Getting onto the bridge
3. Getting onto the second ramp at the second castle exit
4. Getting onto the first ramp at the second castle exit
5. Getting across to the second ramp at the castle reentry
6. Getting across to the first ramp at the castle reentry
7. Getting onto the second ramp at the split paths
8. Getting onto one of the first ramps at the split paths
9. Getting onto the second ramp at the first castle exit
10. Getting onto the first ramp at the first castle exit
11. Getting onto the first ramp inside the castle

Special thanks to Fear (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjeSAtYttyyGPdsliEeY9iA) for developing all the strategies that made this video possible (more about these later in the description), and to EmuTheCat for some major time improvement ideas (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCag8yvhqE0P5nNef_0IcWvQ).

Originally, we thought we needed 2 respawns to complete the track backwards shroomless by; taking the secret tunnel in reverse, and respawning when reaching the start of it, to skip the 1st and 2nd blocks; using a trick boost, combined with a very precise steep slope hop, to skip the 3rd and 4th blocks; doing nothing to skip the 5th and 6th blocks; using slow wheelie glitch to get down onto the offroad track base, hit key checkpoints, and respawn shroomless, to skip the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th blocks; and hold out a miniturbo, to release for a well timed hop, to skip the 11th block (https://youtu.be/DoMcLAuHF0I).

It was quickly realised that we could stay on the track base for the entire lap, by navigating around to hit each key checkpoint, while avoiding some relatively large patches of OOB (https://youtu.be/mshMvdk-qk4). This improved upon and replaced both the respawn to skip the 7th/8th/9th/10th blocks and the 11th block skip itself.

Lastly, we realised a slight alteration of the RTA ultra shortcut entry strategy could be implemented in order to skip the respawn to skip the 1st/2nd blocks (https://youtu.be/JmSsKEaIhKc). EmuTheCat then came up with a 17 second improvement upon the route Fear used (https://youtu.be/IVdCYbmF0HM), and in documenting the strat developments and TASing the run for this video, I found a further 27 second improvement upon the route EmuTheCat used, for a total of 44 seconds faster than the initial complete solution demo. The intimidation of this much variability in routing the TAS was a key factor in this video being delayed for so long (aside from being extremely occupied applying for university and scholarships for next year, and generally not being motivated to make videos).

In summary, Castle of Time has the following statistics to offer:
Minimum Respawns for Infinite Mushrooms: 0
Minimum Respawns for 3, 2, 1, 0 Mushrooms: 0, 0, 0, 0
Minimum Mushrooms for Minimum Respawns: 0
Minimum Mushrooms for Track Completion: 0

Special thanks to Melg (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi7BmIG91AG7lBt3sC_PkGw), for creating the debug panel in this video.

Next track: Cave Island! Before that though, I have a surprise video coming within the next few days (hopefully sooner rather than later).

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