peep the shot at 19:30!

In case any wormers are interested in the music I've been working on (dream pop, indie rock, etc), my band Superocean released an album, and I've made 2 music videos for us so far, latest one:



The full album Permafeels is here, thanks to anyone who listens: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fXI6yZgC0DX3jIvUtCk1j

RuffledBricks will be showing off the first ever WA speedrun in a marathon setting on Nov 29! It'd be sweet if he could get everyone's support.

It's for UKSM, Nov 29th at 12 GMT, right here: https://www.twitch.tv/uksmlive

The All Missions Any% run is something both of us have spent a lot of time working on, and it's actually nuts how many improvements we've made. Also if anyone is interested in getting into the speedrun, join us here on discord: https://discord.gg/K9KrXfmuFG

Haven't talked to any worms pals in a while; but hey to anyone who's still kicking! Been busy making music in Portland, OR for years now, takes a lot of time. We kind of revamped our band, changed the name to Superocean: a friend I've known for like 20 years joined as our bassist which is awesome.

It's dream pop, shoegaze, etc: lemme know if you like it! And if anyone could sub to the new YT channel, would be 👌

Hey peeps; my band has another single for our EP, quite different from the last one. Listen and share if you like it! 

https://castlespdx.bandcamp.com/track/pleasantries

I wanted to hit one of the sloggiest missions next; I'll finish filling in the others soon.

General Strategy: So there are really only 2 feasible strategies if you want to reach the crate that spawns on the far left side of the map in time. You absolutely need the girder crate, so you can A) kill your rightmost worm, giving your left worm more turns to snag the crate and then dig left, or B) move your left worm towards the incoming crate, while your right worm tries to reach the girder crate.

Option B seems the most promising at first, but there's no reliable way to do it. If your rightmost worm stays where it is and digs down, it simply won't reach the crate in time unless the AI help you dig, which is too luck-based. The other method is sending your right worm between the middle of the tapes, and digging from there. This can be done if your worm firepunches the barrel in just the right way, or uses grenade, while also pushing the AI worm so it can't attack you. But both these methods only work maybe 30-50% of the time at best, and that's too much of a time loss to risk on the final mission. Ultimately, option A and B seem to yield around the same time, but option A is way more reliable. I'll just go over option A, though B is included as 'risky route'.

Turn 1: So, your first worm wants to snag the girder crate. I'm just torching down right, then going horizontal once I start to destroy the darker colored pixels.

Turn 2: Now your rightmost worm has 2 jobs: 1) be a target for the first AI worm, so that it doesn't waste time walking left and shotgunning, and 2) die! So just stand on the barrel and let nature take its course. I think standing on the right side of the barrel so the AI launches you into the water saves a couple secs with no grave animation. If you want to be 100% sure the AI kills you, it's fine to just press up to the left side of the barrel.

Normally it seems like an immense waste if a worm is just skipping go without doing anything, so it's worthwhile to go into some of the things this worm could do (but shouldn't do) before dying. For one, it seems impossible to kill the top 2 worms in one shot, which might save some AI turn time. It's possible to open your left worm--at least if you had torched straight to the right--but it doesn't seem to be possible to do this while hitting the barrel and halting the leftmost AI worm's path down. And there's a lot of extra aiming time there. Your worm can kill the rightmost AI worm by jumping, but this accomplishes nothing; that worm skips go every time after the first turn, so it should be left alive. Your worm also could boom race up to where the middle AI worm is, perhaps doing something for 1 turn before dying, but it's just going to be killed if it does this. You could also clear mines on the far left side of the map for later, but might as well do that with a shorter turn by your left worm. It seems the best thing this worm can do is not waste time.

Turn 3: 2 sec nade straight up blows open a hole and hits the barrel, making it easier to get to the girder crate.

Turn 4: On this turn, the goal is to make sure the AI worm can't walk right and get to you. So destroy the land as shown (the AI wants to avoid fall damage), then shoot toward the girder crate to make torching easier. You're going to need to backflip back up after you get the girder crate, so your first shot needs to be done with this in mind. It's good to end your retreat just around the torch hole, walking any farther right can lead to the AI nading some crucial land.

It's important to note that it was entirely possible to torch a little lower on turn 1, nade an opening, then torch to the crate in 1 turn, saving a turn. But for various reasons, that route comes out slower, even though you're doing things 1 turn faster. It's partly because the walking path is a bit less smooth. So this turn is kind of a waiting turn, which is fine since you have to wait a set number of turns anyway.

Turn 5: Move right, planning your jumps in advance, and torch to the crate.

Turn 6: Get back to your starting location and torch up left; the AI will airstrike above you, doing some helpful digging.

Turn 7: Torch up left again, and remember you can hold space before the turn starts to make sure it's entered immediately.

Turn 8: If your worm is free, all you really need to do is clear some mines. I like to toss a 2 sec nade aiming for the right side of the health crate, since this can be done quickly. If your worm isn't free, you should shotgun out, then either shoot the health crate or 1 of the mines. Your retreat is important; try to make sure when the AI targets you that it isn't going to destroy land so as to cut off your route left.

Turn 9: Get as far left as you can, and place the girder to catch the crate next turn, getting as far up the gird as possible. This placement really changes each time, and sometimes you may even need to set off a mine right after you place, to clear the path. If the far right AI worm happens to be dead though, then the AI will be attacking you instead of skipping go, and you really need to be able to place and then move right so the final crate isn't destroyed.

Turn 10: Snag the crate. As with the other missions, it still counts if you get it while dying, not that you need to.

Turn 1: This mission is a simple fling and kami. You need to do a quick hand motion to start off, since you want your arrow hand free the moment you get the rope crate. I'm pressing tab/enter quickly to switch worms and jump, then putting my left hand on f8 and space to select/shoot rope, keeping my right hand free. The fling just needs to be done with an angle and a bit less than full power. And you could always rope across slowly if you had a really good run going.

The kami spot is easy to judge by eye, but for precision, it's on top of the wooden sign, about where your worm touches the last step as you're walking left to right (if you imagine the top of the sign as a series of pixel steps).

Turn 1: Fly your sheep to the crate. The shorter route saves a good 8 seconds, so opt for that if you're skilled and feel like you've gotten it down. But it's hard to beat the safety of the long route; I'm probably doing that to begin with. I'm not even really considering the other shortcut since I don't think the success rate is high enough. The mission record method is way more efficient here, but it's crazy difficult.

Turn 2: Fire punch.