SMO: Studying Metro route - session #33

# Context:

I've been practicing the boss fight of the Metro route. I have not started doing timed runs yet because I'm working on individual problems I'm having with the boss fight. The last problem I noticed (from last session) is that I overheated while trying to shoot the snake during its invulnerable phase. And in the last session I decided that my next step is to rewatch the smallant guide looking for tips on this.

# Goals:

1. Get tips from smallant guide on how to shoot the snake during its invulnerable phase.
2. Test out what I learned.

# Action Plan:

1. Watch smallant guide
1. record tips re snake invulnerable phase.
2. Test out what I learned on 4 untimed trials of the boss fight.
3. Compare and contrast the tips with my trials.

# Work:

Smallant says something like *if you shot all the snake segments, then...*. This doesn't make sense to me because the invulnerable phase happens regardless of whether or not I shot all the snake segments, and so how I treat the invulnerable phase should not depend on whether or not I shot all the snake segments immediately preceding the invulnerable phase.

I noticed that he said to wait until the snake becomes stunned (which is when the snake segments turn purple from black), then shoot it. I have not been doing that. I'll try to do that and see if that's better. Maybe when I overheated in my last session, it's because I started shooting before the snake became stunned. 

I also thought of another idea to prevent overheating. Just shoot a bit slower so that I don't have 3 bullets in the air at the same time, at least initially for the first 3 hits. I thought of this because in smallant's video, he starts out shooting the invulnerable snake slowly for the first 3 hits, then speeds up after that. 

Now I'll do 4 trials, while trying to keep the above in mind, and doing and documenting some analysis after each trial.

Trials 20, 21, 22, 23 analysis: 

• 20: I shot the invulnerable snake slowly initially, then fast. And I didn't overheat. I failed to shoot all the segments in the first cycle, but succeeded in the last. I got hit by projectiles too much (but didn't die, and I accidentally got a heart, which I think allowed me to survive).
• 21: No overheating. Finished in 2 cycles. Got hit less by projectiles because I successfully shot more of them before shooting snake segments.
• 22: No overheating. Finished in 4 cycles. Got hit less by projectiles but I did poorly at getting all the snake segments per cycle. One thing is I'm not (and have never been) trying to shoot near the head before the rest of the body.
• 23: I overheated while shooting the invulnerable snake. I did everything else as well as I have done in the past.

# Analysis:

I think this is the best speedrunning session I've done so far in all of my speedrunning history. I'm now doing better at following *the spirit of* my documented process rather than following *the letter of* it.

# Next steps: 

Do 4 more untimed trials in next session purposed for practicing the same things and trying to consistently beat the boss in 2 cycles.