MaG48HMML - Weapon Testing Facility Normal Speedrun 1:21.200

I've thrown a lot of attempts at this stage, but something about it just feels off. Nothing I do seems satisfying. In the end, I'm going with this run, though. It has one glaring bad part and that's the last screen with the Tondeall and Petit Devil spam. Nothing I do there seems to feel right. My current strat is to just wade through all the enemies and bullets with Flame Mixer. It doesn't feel great because I'm still taking knockback a bunch of times because the Petit Devils always manage to sneak past Flame Mixer. I've tried spamming Homing Sniper, but the topmost Tondeall always manages to survive last and I just don't have the time to wait for Homing Sniper to kill both it and the Petit Devils blocking the door. I've also tried killing all the Tondealls with Flame Mixer and then quickly switching to Tengu Blade to deal with the Petit Devils. Petit Devils don't split when they're killed with Tengu Blade and the weapon does work fairly well on them, but there's always this one asshole Petit Devil that'll get in the way when you try to jump. If only Rain Flush were enabled. Then this room would be one of the most satisfying parts ever.

There's one other room that I feel like there should be a better solution to and it's the room I use Search Snake in. It looks fairly clean with it, but I still don't like the idea of having to damage boost that Junk Block. And also waiting for the Seach Snakes to climb the walls does feel a tiny bit slow.

The rest of the stage is mostly just a Flame Mixer/Tengu Blade siesta. Something interesting about the Tengu Blade is that it doesn't seem to be able to consistently open the Hornet Man Rolls. I think if your slide from a previous screen connects with the Hornet Man Roll, despite the blade being out, it doesn't unroll. Something else that's interesting about Tengu Blade. You straight up can't slide when you're up against a wall so if you want your slide to pass through the Junk Blocks, with Tengu Blade make sure you have a bit of room first. Also, with Concrete Shot disabled, I'm pretty sure the best way to deal with the triple minibosses is to spam Homing Sniper. I think even if Concrete Shot were enabled, Homing Sniper might be the best solution. Definitely the easiest solution, that's for sure.

This run beats the previous normal record, MystSvin's 1:34. For improvements, there's a part where I wait for Search Snake to kill the Picketman and there's also the last room where I stalled a bit after taking some knockback. I'm pretty sure both are unnecessary time losses. And lastly, maybe there's a better way to deal with Quick Man. I keep going back and forth between using Flame Mixer and Homing Sniper. Either way though, if he does a full screen high jump, you're losing time.