Cataractae - Secret Ending (Glitchless) in 28m50s - World Record (Nov 21, 2025)

2:44 - Missed the save point and hesitated on whether to go back for it, but decided to for safety since there isn't another save for a loooong time. Cost me a second or two but it would have cost me a lot more in recovery if I died and had to redo the previous section. Fortunately it didn't end up mattering.

5:52 - Fast resetting here apparently sets your position at the precise pixel to be able to slip past the spores to the right and skip two whole bounces, which is kinda crazy.

7:32 - One of the most nerve-wracking parts of the run is eyeballing in a split second whether to go above or below the balls on this jump. I chose "above" and just BARELY made it, but fortunately your hitbox is smaller than it looks.

8:03 - There is actually a pixel-perfect jump you can do in this section to skip one additional spore (the third one), and I even think I hit the pixel for it here, but I chickened out because the recovery is a nightmare if it fails. This backup skip you see here is super safe and only like a second slower. Got me gold on the split anyway so I'm satisfied.

10:18 - First bonk death of the run only cost me 2 seconds.

16:30 - Missed a gem here which meant I didn't have enough power to get around the hump and fell. Cost me 6 seconds.

19:56 - Actually this waterfall section is the absolute worst part of the run, worse than anything in the hell ending segment. I have lost so many good runs to just choking on these stupid waterfalls. Fortunately it all goes smoothly this time. Surely that means I'm home free, right?

20:34 - Nope. This is one of THE worst places to bonk because it takes soooo looooong to get back here. I lost almost 20 seconds to this one stupid bonk, more than I had lost in the whole run combined so far.

23:26 - Struggled a bit with playing leapfrog, which is fair because it's probably the hardest section of the hell segment. Died twice and lost about 25 seconds overall.

25:33 - Juuuuust slightly too slow and got clipped by this lightning bolt. Unfortunately that cost another 8 seconds.

28:30 - I got scared my timing was off here and waited an extra cycle for safety just to make sure I didn't choke it at the very last minute. It added 2 seconds. In actuality I was probably fine but I was playing a little extra cautious since the run was so close.

And it all worked out! I squeaked in at 6 seconds under time. Could definitely save like 30 seconds or more to just not making dumb bonks, but I'll let this stand until someone beats it :)