Nechku Skip
Explanation
Normally, in Wawku Shrine, you must obtain Blizzard, then return to the inside area of floor 4, pass through floors 5 and 6, and fight Nechku alone. After this, you return to floor 4, finally able to open the gold gear door and reach the outdoor cannon area on the way to fight Lechku & Nechku.
All of this can be skipped by getting out-of-bounds from the outside area of floor 4 after obtaining Blizzard, and jumping directly to the cannon room without fighting Nechku. Not only does this save the several minutes between Blizzard and Nechku, it allows one to completely skip the scale room puzzle on floor 1. Skipping this puzzle would normally cause the game to crash after fighting Nechku, but the game does not crash if Nechku is skipped and Lechku & Nechku are defeated directly.
Note that this skip is only performed in NG categories, as NG+ Any% skips Wawku entirely via Ark Early, and NG+ All Brushes only enters Wawku to get Blizzard, then leaves.
To perform Nechku Skip:
- Obtain Blizzard.
- Return to the entrance to the hallway with the gears that leads to the main room of floor 4.
- Rather than going in, get on top of the doorway by first jumping into the seam between the North rock and the exterior cliff-face, then jumping off the seam onto the top of the entrance.
- This may take a few tries, as Ammy will often slip down the seam without becoming grounded, or you may miss the narrow window to jump.
- While Ammy is on top of the entrance, she'll constantly slide South. Tackle going North and Ammy will slowly move North until she slips off the platform.
- Tackle North from above and run until Ammy is about to reach the edge of the platform.
- Just as Ammy is about to slip off, tackle again to perform an Air Ground Tackle.
- Quickly jump and double jump for height, so that you clear the invisible wall surrounding the outside area. Depending on your timing and angle, you may wall jump instead of double jumping.
- Hug the wall on Ammy's right.
- Land on the steep, narrow, slippery slope below. Immediately jump and double jump while maintaining forward momentum along the slope.
- Jump until you reach the end of this sloped area, where it meets with the other outside area (the cannon room).
- You cannot jump directly to the cannon room due to an invisible wall. Instead, tackle to the left, away from the wall on the right.
- Ammy will get another air-ground tackle. Jump and double jump out of it, going for distance.
- Tackle either toward or slightly along the edge of the cannon room platform, being careful to avoid bouncing off the invisible wall.
- Hug the invisible wall as you land. Ammy should become briefly grounded before quickly slipping off the platform and falling into the void. Before that happens, quickly jump and double jump again, moving toward the left to get around the invisible wall.
- You should only need to do this step once to get around the wall.
- It's possible to move in such a way that you can get around the invisible wall completely without needing to land on the outer edge. This is easier to do if you had gold dash before performing the initial air-ground tackle off the top of the entrance.
Note that there's some flexibility with the movement described here, especially on the slope between the two outdoor areas.
Demonstrations:
- Krinoteder: https://youtu.be/zwGx7p1IfkI?t=7584 (Goes around invisible wall)
- Auride: https://youtu.be/_e5v-Zv632U?t=7322
- Kinnin: https://youtu.be/QMgd6YTIp_s?t=6796 (Maintains Gold Dash)
- GiantCookieJar: https://youtu.be/7cFkSZc7qYw (Original Discoverer)
Note that this trick is generally considered among the hardest in NG runs, on par with or harder than Sei-an Bridge Skip. An effective way to practice this trick is to make a save after deliberately defeating Nechku (remembering to complete the scale room puzzle). You can use the fact that the gold gear gate is opened to be able to return to the Blizzard outdoor area after any time you successfully perform Nechku Skip.