I was bored and decided to try a few different routes on the free cycle. To my surprise, I was able to achieve better time using one of them than I have been using Didi's route. Now I just can't remember which one... hahaha

So, the first one I tried I started out at the end of the lighthouse. I figured if I only had to go one way on that stretch I could save a bunch of time.

The other route I tried started at the top of the ruins and then traveling towards the lighthouse after the decent.

In both cases I went to the city after the lighthouse and launched myself using the ramp from the city courtyard and headed for ledge to the left of the tunnels.

I honestly don't remember the details of each, but I was able to achieve around 19 minutes using both of these routes, which is the best time I have ever been able to achieve, even following Didi's route to a "T".

It just made me wonder, if there are methods I am missing on Didi's route, maybe those same methods could be used on these routes for those of you who are trying to break the 15 barrier. What made me think about this was that initially starting at the top of the castle route made sense because you could eliminate one direction entirely. But since the dry lake plummet was discovered, you really don't need to eliminate that stretch anymore, so why not try to eliminate another long stretch that must be covered in 2 directions - The lighthouse and the ruins came to mind.

Interested to know your thoughts...

ggg

You may have eliminated the return trip at the lighthouse but how did you get up the mountain, through the tunnel and around the edge, that entire distance ftom the end of the beach is eliminated with didis route. Guess we would need meore details. I often try different things when my time is not going to cut it for some reason but still find DiDis route quickest.
Also wondering about someones comment thet Nintendo would put a cap at 15 minute speed. Why would they do that, makes no sence to me.

It was my comment about the 15 minute cap. But I have a route that might slightly shorten time. After going over red iron bridge (actually just after going over the top), jump out of the nearest hole on the right that will land you on land. Then go to the start circle and jump into town, and hit the balloon!

so when are you getting the balloon between the buildings that I usually get first? seems like you have to backtrack? then go to other end of town to hit balloon along the water. Am I missing something?

I know my post sounded confusing - let me clarify. The beach is still last. So let me try to recap what I actually did (need to refer to my trusty map hahaha)

1.Start at lighthouse (1)
2. Grab 3 city balloons and then launch from the courtyard through the start circle (balloon by water - 2, balloon nearest bridge - 3, courtyard balloon - 4)
3. Next grab the balloon on the ledge to the left of the tunnels, then up to castle - grab all balloons up there and plummet to dry lake bed (5, 6, 7, 8, dry lake bed - 9)
4. Exit dry lake bed tunnel and turn LEFT - grab the first balloon and then down to the beach to grab only the ONE balloon which is under the man-made tunnel. (10, 11)
5. Next straight up to S-ledge balloon (12)
6. Next the balloon under red iron bridge - then instead of plummeting, turn around and head towards the waterfall and use the launcher closest to the waterfall and head towards the steel ramp tunnel. (13)
7. Grab the balloon at the exit at the top of the steel ramp tunnel and jump Dog Leap (14)
8. Grab 2 on the way to the ruins and then the top of the ruins (15, 16, 17)
9. After man-made tunnel go straight past hotel and ring for pet, then head for beach to grab the last 3 balloons. (18, 19, 20)

I also tried this taking the ledge balloon from step 3 and moving that to the beginning of step 7. It didnt seem to make a difference.

In both cases I got better time than using Didi's route, but remember, I can't seem to get much lower than 19:50 using Didi's - using the above route I was somewhere around 19:15. In some cases I think the distance may have been longer but the speed was faster and there was less uphill climbing. I noticed a big difference in separating that first beach balloon from the last 3 - it seemed much faster to go to S-ledge from that, even though there was some uphill. And then when I hit the beach at the end, my speed was accellerated because I was coming from high speed on pavement.

This probably won't help anyone who is sucessfully achieving 17min or less using Didi's route, but maybe if you apply some of your time-saving moves here it will improve for you.

I just got to thinking (from all my reading in this forum) that the plummet to dry lake bed seems like it was discovered after it had been determined to start at the top by the castle. Since the return trip down the mountain was eliminated with the plummet, where else could I save time by eliminating long stretches where I cover ground more than once.

ggg

I wonder what your distance is using this route. I think my best has been 9.662 but usually about 9.75. Does that compare with your distances. Obviously the less the distance the better the times if we take into account going downhill as much as possible.

I will be using this route again today and will try to track time stamps around the various landmarks. Also will get distance.

I used to start at the lighthouse till Didi's route was posted. It seemed faster to me (Didi's) but the route was different. Yours would be fun to try.

No you then go down to the street before the dock and make a 180 to inbetween the buildings get balloon turn around then turn right to get out of inbetween the buildings, continue down the trail to the coastal balloon! I just wanted to give you a shortcut. You do not need to go to the water`s edge to hit the coastal balloon. You can go on the street before that. You are getting the balloon inbetween the buildings 2nd.

kilometers or miles? I have to admit I have not paid much attention to distance. I am in US so I use miles. I have converted my results to kilometers for the forum score sheet, but not for the free cycle.