Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

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Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by JurgaBurgaFlintines » Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:57 pm

Hey, so I am interested in doing Kingdom Rush speedruns, specifically the first game in the series. I have done a few runs with pretty bad times. I was wondering if anyone is interested in running the game. I am planning on creating a guide soon for speedrunning the campaign mode and I already have a few strats for the run.
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Re: Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by nebel03 » Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:08 pm

Hey,
so you are considering strategies to clear the stages as fast as possible? In which difficulty do you want These runs? every or just one?
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Re: Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by PitNata » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:37 pm

First of all, welcome to the Forums, JurgaBurgaFlintines and Nebel03! :yey: :yey: :yey: I am hoping you would enjoy your stay here!

Speedruns? That would be awesome, but i don't think so for a game like KR is. The thing is, in levels, the waves are always being set on a exact time, not even made specifically for that purpose, or just limits your speedrun. You can always actually call waves earlier, and get more money, however it will bring more challenge to you, as more monsters would come out, and of course, may ruin your day, because no-one would able to beat a swarm of monsters, called every time they appears. Speedrun tactics must be very strict, and be very having use of the stars, which would mean, you had perhaps also complete all Iron and Heroic challenges, which just wastes your time for that silly 1 star. You have to either use shops, to get to the end quickly (Gnome Shops; They are exclusive on mobile) and also using heroes do to the job.

I can give you some tips, but i don't think it will fit for the speedrun;

-Always use Rain Of Fire, and Reinforcements often, being a little cautios with Rain, since it may be used as an emergency, if leak occures.
-If you have enough money to upgrade barracks, do so when your soldiers died. They will respawn quickly, and continue blocking the troops.
-Having bought heroes (Only Mobile) can actually make your levels end more faster. Use them.
-Even if you didn't have any bought ones, or you're playing PC versions, still keep on using them, and change them whenever the situation calls for.
-Use gnome shop, to buy Frozotovs, Dynamites, anything else, expect for the wand (as it will waste your precious time).
-If Speedrun is not actually meant to be perfect (Like having 20 hearts/3 stars at the end), than you can sometimes let your enemies go. Remember, they can actually save you the time, than having them being stalled.
-Ranged heroes can attack abuse, if you move them every time they made an attack. (Will work only on Slow, or Normal attack speeds)

I'm of course say goodluck on your guide, and as well your own speedrun. Please, also tell me where you will actually post the guide.
I'm modding Kingdom Rush. :geek:
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Re: Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by JurgaBurgaFlintines » Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:18 pm

nebel03 wrote:Hey,
so you are considering strategies to clear the stages as fast as possible? In which difficulty do you want These runs? every or just one?


So I am doing Any% runs of Kingdom Rush on Casual Mode. The definition of "Any%" in this game is to complete the main campaign as fast as possible. There is no requirement to get 3 stars or 0 deaths on all stages. I do want to make it clear that I run on iOS/Android version simply because it's more convenient to me, controls are more natural for me, and the gnome shop is included on the iOS/Android version which proves to be very helpful.


PitNata wrote:First of all, welcome to the Forums, JurgaBurgaFlintines and Nebel03! :yey: :yey: :yey: I am hoping you would enjoy your stay here!

Speedruns? That would be awesome, but i don't think so for a game like KR is. The thing is, in levels, the waves are always being set on a exact time, not even made specifically for that purpose, or just limits your speedrun. You can always actually call waves earlier, and get more money, however it will bring more challenge to you, as more monsters would come out, and of course, may ruin your day, because no-one would able to beat a swarm of monsters, called every time they appears. Speedrun tactics must be very strict, and be very having use of the stars, which would mean, you had perhaps also complete all Iron and Heroic challenges, which just wastes your time for that silly 1 star. You have to either use shops, to get to the end quickly (Gnome Shops; They are exclusive on mobile) and also using heroes do to the job.


Thanks for the welcome!
I do understand that speedrunning isn't the best idea for Kingdom Rush or the Tower Defense genre in general. The reason I considered speedrunning it in the first place was because there is a level of strategy, route planning, and timing that is involved, not necessarily "How fast can I complete this game?" (There is also the fact that no one really holds any WRs for Kingdom Rush lol).

Currently, I don't have a written out route for the game, but I have a good idea of what I have to do on each map. My route does not require me to complete any of the Heroic or Iron challenges as they aren't needed. I just go from level to level, completing it as optimally as I can. I know what towers I need to use, where to place them and when to use special powers. On top of that, I do plan out when I upgrade towers and when to use my stars to upgrade towers. My route currently utilizes 33 stars before the final level (Something that I want to change). You mentioned the Gnome Shops, which is very useful in the speed run. I use Gnome Shop specifically to buy Bags of Gold, which I use on the last level to make it easier. Specifically, I buy 2-3 bags depending on the amount of gems I receive prior to the last level(something that I want to investigate: What determines how many gems you get?).

I also utilize heroes in my speedrun. I use Alleria Swiftwind because she is fairly fast and has ranged attacks. I don't buy heroes simply because I don't want to use in-game downloadable content in a speedrun where the game itself is free. If people ever want to speedrun this game, I want to make it as accessible as possible.


PitNata wrote:I can give you some tips, but i don't think it will fit for the speedrun;

1. Always use Rain Of Fire, and Reinforcements often, being a little cautios with Rain, since it may be used as an emergency, if leak occures.
2. If you have enough money to upgrade barracks, do so when your soldiers died. They will respawn quickly, and continue blocking the troops.
3. Having bought heroes (Only Mobile) can actually make your levels end more faster. Use them.
4. Even if you didn't have any bought ones, or you're playing PC versions, still keep on using them, and change them whenever the situation calls for.
5. Use gnome shop, to buy Frozotovs, Dynamites, anything else, expect for the wand (as it will waste your precious time).
6. If Speedrun is not actually meant to be perfect (Like having 20 hearts/3 stars at the end), than you can sometimes let your enemies go. Remember, they can actually save you the time, than having them being stalled.
7. Ranged heroes can attack abuse, if you move them every time they made an attack. (Will work only on Slow, or Normal attack speeds)


1. Yeah, I was already aware of this. I could work on my Rain of Fire usage because I will sometimes use it towards the beginning of a wave, but then enemies will start to get close to the end and I don't have a way to destroy them because my RoF is still cooling down.

2. That's something I will keep in mind. I will definitely have to pay a bit more attention to the game.

3. As I said before, I prefer not to use bought heroes because it's unfair to those who want to run the game and can't buy heroes.

4. I already do this in battles. My strategy for heroes is to put them at the beginning of the map so they level up and then move them to either my weak points or the end of my map.

5. I actually never considered using Dynamite or Frozotovs. I might try to incorporate these two items into my game. I just want to make sure I have enough gems to get atleast 2 Bags of Gold as those are extremely useful on the last stage.

6. Yeah, this is something I am considering. Yes, stars can be very helpful in making your towers and special attacks more powerful, but you don't need to always be perfect. What I am planning on doing is trying to route the Any% category in such a way that I don't need to get 3 stars everytime. I just need to see which upgrades are useful and not useful.

7. I'll try this out in another run.

PitNata wrote:I'm of course say goodluck on your guide, and as well your own speedrun. Please, also tell me where you will actually post the guide.


Thanks for the good luck! My goal for the Any% category is 2 hours or less. My current PB (Personal Best) is at 2:25:53 because I had to restart a couple levels. I will be making my guide in a Google Doc and it will be posted on my twitter: twitter.com/JurgaBurga and on http://www.speedrun.com/kr/forum .
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Re: Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by Big Bad Bug » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:44 am

Interesting ambition. I'm very happy to be able to say that as I welcome a new member to the forums. You seem to have a lot of passion. :D

I'm quite interested in such a thing myself now, though I have nothing to record myself in action. I can think of a few things to help, though:

Of course, calling all waves immediately is a must. I'm greedy for gold and spell cooldowns so I do this for every stage. I believe the game is balanced so that you can beat any mission on Veteran with no lives lost and still call every wave instantly.

KR is also balanced for you to be able to beat every mission without any star upgrades, though I've never seen this done without holding back on calling waves. It is possible to combine both of these, however. If you're counting the purchasing of upgrades and items in your speedrun, as I would, then you can plan to buy upgrades at specific times. Hold back on going into the upgrades room or Gnome Shop until after beating the first couple of levels, then buy everything in bulk, knowing ahead of time what you want to purchase. This way, you don't have to waste time going into the upgrades room again and again.

Since you allow heroes, items, casual difficulty, lives to potentially be lost, and for the game to be done on any percentage, it opens up a lot of space for sacrifices. With upgrades taking multiple stars to unlock at later levels, you can plan ahead of time to get exactly the amount of stars you need for specific moments. You can also allow some enemies to get through rather than try to make a perfect strategy that would otherwise require waiting for calling waves later, saving more time. The space for error to get 2 stars is wide (17 - 6 is vast) so it leaves a lot of room for error, intentional or not. ;)

I'm guessing that it's allowed for the player to respec upgrades, sell towers, and abuse mechanics such as upgrading elementals before they die in order to fully heal them. I can imagine a pretty broad number of outcomes with these options, and while speedruns for other games of non-TD genres can go many more ways, this still has lots of potential. I look forward to seeing you beat your own personal best. :)
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Re: Kingdom Rush Speedruns?

by JurgaBurgaFlintines » Mon Jul 24, 2017 3:15 am

Big Bad Bug wrote:Interesting ambition. I'm very happy to be able to say that as I welcome a new member to the forums. You seem to have a lot of passion. :D

I'm quite interested in such a thing myself now, though I have nothing to record myself in action. I can think of a few things to help, though:

Of course, calling all waves immediately is a must. I'm greedy for gold and spell cooldowns so I do this for every stage. I believe the game is balanced so that you can beat any mission on Veteran with no lives lost and still call every wave instantly.

KR is also balanced for you to be able to beat every mission without any star upgrades, though I've never seen this done without holding back on calling waves. It is possible to combine both of these, however. If you're counting the purchasing of upgrades and items in your speedrun, as I would, then you can plan to buy upgrades at specific times. Hold back on going into the upgrades room or Gnome Shop until after beating the first couple of levels, then buy everything in bulk, knowing ahead of time what you want to purchase. This way, you don't have to waste time going into the upgrades room again and again.

Since you allow heroes, items, casual difficulty, lives to potentially be lost, and for the game to be done on any percentage, it opens up a lot of space for sacrifices. With upgrades taking multiple stars to unlock at later levels, you can plan ahead of time to get exactly the amount of stars you need for specific moments. You can also allow some enemies to get through rather than try to make a perfect strategy that would otherwise require waiting for calling waves later, saving more time. The space for error to get 2 stars is wide (17 - 6 is vast) so it leaves a lot of room for error, intentional or not. ;)

I'm guessing that it's allowed for the player to respec upgrades, sell towers, and abuse mechanics such as upgrading elementals before they die in order to fully heal them. I can imagine a pretty broad number of outcomes with these options, and while speedruns for other games of non-TD genres can go many more ways, this still has lots of potential. I look forward to seeing you beat your own personal best. :)



Thanks for the good luck.

I was wondering if there are any upgrades that don't have a major affect in battle? That way, I can plan out my late game better and give myself some more leeway. The only things I really upgrade are: Archers, Mages, Barracks and Rain of Fire. My first upgrade is usually after level 3 and I get the 3rd tier upgrade on the mage and 2nd tier upgrades on the Barrack and Archer so that mages cost less. After that, I just do it whenever it is most convenient. I do plan on going to the upgrade screen only twice duringt the run.

Also, you mentioned upgrading elementals before they die. I never thought of that. I can also apply that to Barracks and other reinforcements.
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