King's Low% Difficulty Tier List
I got bored, so now I'm ranking every low% category in terms of difficulty including ones that haven't been completed. This will include every category of 14%, 13%, 12% (will exclude most theoretical categories), 11%, 4%, and 0%. Anything with brackets [ ] means it hasn't been completed RTA. Also, accounting for use of L+R walljumping is tricky because it can significantly alter the difficulty ranking. For example, 13% PbPb would be lower difficulty than 11% glitched if L+R is used. I didn't really rank the difficulty of walljumps no L+R in 14% GrappleChargeless. I also ignored UWJ no L+R in 14% xSpring and xGrapple because they're optional for getting out of G4 if you don't wanna grind for metroid pb drops.
- Note, 13% PbPb and 13% IcePb are the only completed categories (to the best of my knowledge) that I'd put in S tier difficulty. GCC's puzzles are no higher than C tier. Kona challenge is B tier. Blindfolded is A tier. S tier runs are TAS-only runs becoming a reality RTA.
Contents
Difficulty Tier List
All categories are listed in order of decreasing difficulty from top to bottom even within each tier
ABSOLUTE UNTOUCHABLE GOD TIER
[13% Speed TAS]
- Underwater walljumps (UWJ) no L+R, 3f-perfect everest slopespark + 3f double knockback from a puyo to generate slopespark on flat ground to avoid L+R, colosseum shortcharge isn't even known to be humanly possible. This is at least as hard as getting the everest slopespark twice in a row. For a bit of context, bobbob (the only person to ever execute this slopespark in a run) told me his success rate was 1 in 20. So 1/20*1/20 = 1 in 400 chance of bob completing this category. Not counting the colosseum shortcharge, which isn't known to be humanly possible yet
S+ Tier
[13% SpeedPb]
- UWJ no L+R, 3f-perfect everest slopespark, 10pb underflow. A combination of the things that make 13% PbPb and 13% IcePb so hard
[14% SpeedPb]
- UWJ no L+R, 3f-perfect everest slopespark, 10pb flashsuit @ Draygon. Only slightly easier than the 13% SpeedPb
13% PbPb (Particularly without L+R)
- UWJ no L+R, 3f-perfect everest slopespark, underflow
[14% xSpeed] (if the really bs way to do it no L+R is done)
- Bluesuit -> gmode maridia entry -> rmode conversion to yellowsuit (frame perfect) -> first try Jesuswalk (much more precise than normal with a sparksuit) -> superjump bluesuit conversion. Left side UWJ no L+R is required on NTSC. On PAL, this would probably be at the top of A tier or the bottom of S tier. Tbh this category is basically a somewhat nerfed 13% speed TAS if done on NTSC.
S Tier
[11% Pb] (Theoretical glitched category to supersede 12%)
- Gravityless door skips (very hard), complex OoB navigation, 10pb underflow
[14% GrapplePb]
- UWJ no L+R, Botwoon cf clip and use charge for Botwoon fight, 10pb flashsuit @ Draygon
- Jesuswalk, 10pb bluesuit generation (very precise rmode setup), 10pb underflow. This is the hardest category that I myself have ever completed in this entire game
- Main St. + Mt. Everest ice + no HJB, 10pb underflow
[14% IcePb]
- Main St. + Mt. Everest ice + no HJC, 10pb flashsuit @ Draygon
A Tier
- Without L+R, requires UWJ, grapple-bomb-jump-jumps, slopespark using a door, and spikesuit in colosseum using a weird glitch with grapple and bombs. With L+R and turbo (like I did cuz I was lazy), this would be towards the top of B tier
- Jesuswalk Mt. Everest and West Sand Hall, need to do a weird double springball jump using bombs to get out of springball room, need to do a weird double springball jump using a bomb and reserves draining to get past halfie room, 10 missile zebs
- Loop through forgotten highway for tube gravity jump, Botwoon hallway cf clip then farm mocktroids and puyos for a 3% to get enough ammo to fight Botwoon without missing any ammo, underflow (harder on PAL). This is the hardest 14% that I myself have ever done
- Probably easier than some others on this list, but it requires a trick that might be 3f perfect and not much is known about this, 10 missile zebs
B Tier
- Loop through forgotten highway for tube gravity jump, multiple elevator cf suits (including one to carry all the way to zebs for zeb skip), botwoon cf clip
- Loop through forgotten highway for tube gravity jump, elevator cf suit, underflow (harder on PAL), tbh I'm ignoring the difficulty of UWJ if no L+R is used, which would make this category even harder (likely A tier).
13% xCharge (Low% L+R on the board)
- Jesuswalk, 10 missile zebs, optional evir particle dboost, similar in difficulty to 12% but I might say this is technically slightly harder
12% xCharge (Standard 12% on the main board)
- Complex OoB navigation, evir particle dboost in West Sand Hall, xray zeb skip, maybe technically slightly easier than 13% xCharge but this is more of a pain due to OoB shenanigans
- 10pb bluesuit generation using rmode in at least 3 instances (the one before Botwoon to avoid L+R is a very precise setup), one of which must be carried all the way to tourian for zeb skip
- Underflow, rmode botwoon hallway clip, maridia navigation no ice, gravity, or hi jump, evir particle dboost in West Sand Hall leaving Maridia
- Jesuswalk, Maridia no ice, gravity, or hi jump. Dumb worthless obsolete category :)
14% xSpeed (with L+R as previous runs have done)
- Rmode botwoon clip, colosseum on the way out is tough (not unique to this category), evir particle dboost in West Sand Hall leaving Maridia (if left by going down) or horizontal infinite bomb jump (diagonal bomb jumps) in cac alley (if going through forgotten highway)
- 10 missile zebs, UWJ no L+R out of G4 or grind for metroid pb drops
- Halfie room and colosseum no L+R, 10 missile zebs
C Tier
- Underflow, Main St. + Mt. Everest with ice and no hi jump, maridia with no gravity or hi jump
- Varia blue + navigate all of maridia up to post-dray save in one go
- I forgor, but it wasn't terrible, I promise! There is some complex OoB navigation including a segment that's helpful to have a metronome for, but I didn't think it was as complex as 12%. It also requires off-screen bomb jumps
- Slopespark to get through botwoon hallway, halfie room and colosseum no L+R, which are actually kinda tricky
[12% GravCharge]
- Botwoon hallway OoB entry (not quite figured out yet), 10 missile zebs
- Botwoon hallway cf clip with 10 pbs, 10 missile zebs
- Rmode botwoon clip, 10 missile zebs
D Tier
- Elevator cf suit (double frame perfect), botwoon w/o charge (3 supers + 1 missile or 10 missiles extra), underflow (frame perfect). Trust me, this is harder than low% ice and it doesn't matter that ridley and mb are free. This is coming from someone who has somewhat optimized both categories and as someone who tried to learn this 10 years ago cuz I couldn't do the boss fights and I was much further away from figuring out chargeless.
- Mt. Everest ice and no hi jump, suitless Draygon fight
- Main St. and Mt. Everest with ice and hi jump, suitless Draygon fight (easier on PAL), UWJ no L+R (easy) to get out of precious room
- Just Ridley and MB but slightly longer than ice
- Just Ridley and MB
- Basically a few doorskips and xray hall and that's it. Not super complicated OoB movement
Fun Tier List
S Tier
14% Ice and 14% Speed
A Tier
14% Iceboots, 14% X-Ice, 14% Chargeless, 0%, and 14% Icebooster
B Tier
4%, 14% xGravity, [12% GravCharge], 14% Speedboots, and 14% Chargelice
C Tier
14% xSpeed (with L+R as previous runs have done), 14% xChargeless, 12% xCharge, and 13% xCharge
D Tier
14% GravPb, 14% xBoots, 14% xGrapple, 14% xPb, and 14% GravBoots
F Tier
14% xAmmo, 14% GrappleChargeless, 14% PbPb, 14% SuperChargeless, 14% xSpring, 14% GrappleBooster, [14% IcePb], 13% IcePb, 13% xPb, [14% GrapplePb], [11% Pb (Theoretical glitched category to supersede 12%)], 14% xSpeed (no L+R), 13% PbPb, [14% SpeedPb], and [13% SpeedPb]
FFFFFFFFF Tier
[13% Speed TAS]
