Gilius can be better in some niche situations. His attack+jump rolling attack has a longer range than the spin attack you get with Tyris or Ax. It can hit enemies while they are off screen, but it’s less useful in close quarters. I also prefer the hitbox on his headbutt compared to Tyris‘ flying kick. At the moment Gilius is even the fastest character for beginner difficulty speed runs where current stats don’t use magic. Having said that, I still think Tyris is the strongest character overall by a long way.

@@01garland01 I’ll say one thing, both characters are cool. Too bad I can’t say the same to Ax Battler.

@@GritterTheBuckethead Ax has no redeeming features haha.

Start sprinting by double tapping then holding left/right. Then jump to perform a high jump. Whilst in the air press and hold attack. It can be difficult to hit enemies as they dodge down the screen. This can be avoided in a few ways but the easiest is to just be at the bottom of the screen so that the enemies cannot dodge down.

The down stab attack does a lot of damage compared to other attacks. It does 16 damage which is enough to kill most enemies in one or two hits. For a breakdown of attack damage and enemy health you can see a table I made here hackmd.io/@ntvqpUqeSGGmt6NviEIWnw/rJvaq-XtI . Also note this is the Genesis/Megadrive version of the game, the arcade release works differently.

Thanks! If you want to see the arcade version speedruns there is a leaderboard here www.speedrun.com/golden_axe_arcade

Thanks! Stage 4 thief camp was the biggest time loss. Missed the first attack as I was too close and lost about 3 seconds. I would have used glitches if I knew of any that saved time but still haven't found any.

There is a leaderboard at www.speedrun.com/golden_axe where peeople submit their speedruns to be verified by the community. I haven't seen a 6.33 run, that is much faster than anyone has done Golden Axe for Genesis/Megadrive, but it's close to the current WR for the Arcade release of Golden Axe. Perhaps the run you saw if for that version instead? Please share if it's for the Genesis/Megadrive version though, I would love to see it!

@01garland01 Just wondered, thank you for your polite reply. You are correct, was the arcade version. Keep up the speed run videos I love them. And my apologises.

The spinning attack is done by pressing attack and jump together (the game is very unforgiving and the buttons must be pressed at exactly the same time so this can sometimes fail). The jump / down stab is done by first sprinting (double tap a direction) then jump, then hold attack whilst in the air. Enemies usually dodge the down stab by moving down the screen but you can avoid this if you are already at the bottom of the screen. Hope that helps, happy gaming!

I use a Megadrive/Genesis 6 button controller. Anything with a good d-pad works well though. I used to use a PS3 controller before I moved from PC/emu to an original console.

@@01garland01 Cool. Thanks and Merry Christmas ^_^

Press attack and jump at the same time.

This is the megadrive / genesis port of the game. I am playing it on a real console so it's not a download. You can play it on a megadrive / genesis emulator such as retroarch if you have a game ROM.

I don't think there is a TAS yet

Collecting magic before the stage 2 camp will lose time. When you enter a camp the magic pot thief will steal some of your magic, which you can then take back by attacking them. This means that collecting magic in stage 1 or 2 would mean the camp thieves would need to be hit an extra time before their bag is empty. This was one of the reasons for switching to no magic strategies as it is a nice time save over the run.

@@01garland01 ah, didn't know that! interesting!

I think everyone must do it 😅. Revenge for that ear piercing screech!

😂 @@01garland01

I actually pretend to run away, faster than them so they get left behind to defend for themselves lol@@01garland01

Start sprinting by double tapping then holding left/right. Whilst sprinting press jump to do an extra high leap, then hold attack when you are in the air. Enemies will dodge out of the way by moving down. If you are at the bottom of the screen they cannot dodge it. Otherwise you need to time it so you only just reach the enemy as you land the attack.

It's good to be sceptical and you are correct that usually the enemies will dodge down from the overhead hit. However with practice it can be done with good positioning and timing. The idea is to move away from the enemy as you wind up the overhead hit and then come back to barely land on them. HonourableJay covered this in a commentary of his PB here if you are interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnTGk6esm8yrnM0m15s

@@01garland01 nice, excellent explanation of it. Makes me respect the run even more now! Top work.

I haven't tested all the enemies so it might be possible. But so far I have only been able to do it to this type of enemy.

I missed a second back attack at 1:25 and jumped accidentally. Also missed my first hit on the thieves in stage 2 camp. There are lots of very small time losses caused by playing slowly compared to my previous pb. Still happy with this run but it would be great to see a clean run with Gilius. I'm wondering how close to 2:40 we can get.

@@01garland01 Ah, I must have missed those. Are you planning any more runs of Arcade mode and 'the duel'? It'd be so cool to see those.

@@Supergoon1989 I don't have any new strats for the duel and my pb is pretty optimised so I have no plans to run it. I might try and route out a Gilius duel run though. I think I have some time saves in arcade now with strats that have been found since my pb but it's still a strong record and could take a long grind to beat which I'm not motivated for right now.