Uurnog Speedruns

Hey guys, I've been a lurker around here for a while, but recently I got into speedrunning and hoo boy, Uurnog is a gold mine for this kinda stuff in my opinion.

I'm posting here to say I've set up a speedrun.com page for anyone who wants to do any of the challenges suggested in this forum at speed: https://www.speedrun.com/Uurnog (I've given credit in the category descriptions to the posters who suggested the challenges but if I've got the names wrong anywhere, please let me know)

For those unfamiliar with speedrun.com, it's basically a huge collection of game leaderboards where people post their best times in various games (with each game having various categories that people run).

I myself just yesterday had a try at routing and running a Zoo Ending speedrun. I made a lot of little mistakes, including going for the L key too early, but overall I think the route is pretty decent. I look forward to someone proving me wrong though!

Because my request for an Uurnog page was approved just this morning, my run is the only one on there right now, but I check the page every day so if anyone wanted to submit a time for an Uurnog run of any sort, please do go ahead and I'll get it up on the leaderboard ASAP. The page links back to this forum as well, so if anyone happens upon the game in the future they'll be directed to all the cool discussions going on here.

For anyone interested, here's my Zoo Ending run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVtKkhTNoyA

EDIT: My updated, far far superior run (5mins faster) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPQ_GNffNE

Wow, you sure have a higher tolerance for framerate drops than I do. I could never play the game like this. In fact, just watching this run made me dizzy. This is why I gave up on trying to make videos of it after realizing how badly it performs on my PC with capture software running.

As for the run itself, TBH, I don't think it's very good. The route just seems way to straightforward. I'm pretty sure there are a lot more exploits you could've used to cut down on time.

For instance, why'd you ignore the room to the left of your starting point in the O area? Everything there could've been useful. Especially seeing how you can retrieve multiple copies of everything by killing yourself after teleporting it (as long as you haven't been in the save room yet).

The teleport bombs could've easily retrieved blocks in cursed screens or difficult to reach spots (like that key you spent way too much time firing at with a teleport gun, though I don't think you actually need it). They also could've allowed you to quickly return to the save room. The gems could've made expensive items easier to buy. A rainbow gem in particular would've given you instant access to the teleport gun. And finally, master keys would've removed the need to retrieve keys from the village altogether.

Also, you should've probably skipped the E area. There are no animals unique to it. IIRC, the only thing you got from there is a red alien, which you could've easily purchased in the village.

Oh, and if the gems in the O area still aren't enough, just buy a use gun and shoot the gems in the gem store.

On a side note, I'm a bit disappointed you didn't include my challenge on the site. Is it because nobody's figured out how to beat it? Or were my rules difficult to understand? I could explain the basic route if you want. Doesn't look like anyone will ever figure it out themselves at this rate.

The video doesn't seem to have framerate drops when I play it back, and I certainly didn't experience frame drops while doing the run myself. I don't know why it's doing that for you but that does sound like a pain in the butt.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the master key room would be so useful that my entire run is forfeit, but I do agree that it would have saved me a visit to E, which naturally would save a minute or so. I actually did the run before I learned of the master key room, but even knowing what I do now, I'd only go to it once. That's because you need to collect the animals anyway, which naturally entails visiting many locations.

That said, I'd genuinely enjoy seeing you cut my time in half using the strategies you describe here! That's the joy of this game, and is exactly why I didn't wait till I had a good run to request the page be made on speedrun.com (you have to request them by submitting a run, you see). I'd much rather people think my run slow and overcome it than think my run too good to be beat.

I'm sorry I didn't include your challenge on the page. I wanted to, but I didn't fully understand the rules, and wasn't sure if people had figured out how to do it yet. If you're happy to clarify the rules for me here then I'd be happy to include it on the site though   

Hmm, that's weird. The video runs much more fluidly now that I restarted my browser. Maybe it had previously gotten overwhelmed by its huge amount of tabs.

On second thought, unlocking every single door with master keys might be going a bit too far, but it should be worth retrieving items from that room at least once or twice, which would already allow you to quickly unlock one or two of the trickier doors. I'm pretty sure the teleport bombs and rainbow gems would be a significant help, though. You can get a maximum of ten blocks from this room before heading to the save room for the first time (nine in the stack and one that you're carrying while being teleported). With two trips to the room, that'd give you a maximum of four teleport bombs, two master keys and two rainbow gems (actually, you could just instantly collect the second gem and teleport another item instead if you want). That alone should already allow cutting several minutes off the run.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Skull blocks don't kill you when they disappear. So there's no reason to keep your distance.

As for my challenge, I just rewrote the instructions. Hopefully, they're clearer now. And I added a summary of the solution.

I've added your challenge (they're all in Miscellaneous so that we can keep adding more)! I look forward to trying my hand at it after I've improved my vanilla Zoo ending run (thanks for the advice btw)!

Okay, that run is indeed a huge improvement. Still some relatively minor mistakes, but the route itself is pretty good. One thing I'd like to note is that there's another bird exploit that may be faster. Instead of dropping the bird after flying, just briefly put it in your inventory to reset it.

Also, I figured out the cause of the weird framerate drops. It happens in both of your videos when the quality is set to 1080p. Anything lower than that works fine. I don't know if the videos themselves are screwed up or if my browser just can't handle them.

Regarding that vault ending speedrun you recently made, I think you could've saved a fair bit of time by reading the inventory book in the L tower.

I wondered if that might be the case, and it is! The run I uploaded today was a whole 3 minutes faster. It inspired me to think up another challenge like the ones you guys already have (and that I'm gonna speedrun next) that should hopefully be fun to do both at a relaxed pace AND fast.