Has anyone been able to conquer SM:Limit without tool assistance?

[Foxhound3857]

http://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=190

I'm slowly slugging my way through this one, little by little. It's no SM:Impossible, but it's pretty brutal in its own right. It requires a lot of precision, as well as trial and error. The Speed Booster escape, for example. While awesome, it's a one-shot deal; you die if you make a mistake (and NOBODY will make it out on the first try). The Grappling room before Phantoon is just all sorts of lunacy, especially with Bombus constantly sapping your health as you go. And having to go through Maridia and fight Draygon without Gravity is a callback to SM:Impossible, although this one at least gives you Varia to work with. Trying to legitimately get the Plasma Beam is just...evil. Thankfully I was able to find Spazer (which was also well hidden, but not frustratingly so), and I can make do with that for the rest of the game.

I haven't had to use a savestate yet, but little by little this hack is ebbing away at my patience. Has anyone else played it? Has anyone conquered it without savestates or tool assistance?

[Aran;Jaeger]

Surely there have been like 20 or more people that beat this without tools, I wouldn't even consider it one of the most brutal hacks and there exist even speedruns of it as you can see here: http://shinespark.metroidconstruction.com/leaderboard.php?id=190
I also remember there being a glorious community race of this hack.  :colonrightv:

If you want to see a real hardcore hack, here is Lioran's WR speedrun of SM Impossible with sophisticated strategies developed by us. In total, during all the years of running this hack, he managed 3 deathless runs from what I remember: http://www.speedrun.com/smimpossible

[Foxhound3857]

Surely there have been like 20 or more people that beat this without tools, I wouldn't even consider it one of the most brutal hacks and there exist even speedruns of it as you can see here: http://shinespark.metroidconstruction.com/leaderboard.php?id=190
I also remember there being a glorious community race of this hack.  :colonrightv:

If you want to see a real hardcore hack, here is Lioran's WR speedrun of SM Impossible with sophisticated strategies developed by us. In total, during all the years of running this hack, he managed 3 deathless runs from what I remember: http://www.speedrun.com/smimpossible

I didn't know anybody had actually beaten Impossible without tool assistance. Damn. I need to go watch those now.

Still, I think Limit is pretty hard in its own way, a more creative way than Impossible at least. Impossible is just raw, unrefined, in-your-face asswhoopery. Limit is...well, I'd almost compare it to Z-Factor in some ways; there's an emphasis put on navigating rooms. But Z-Factor feels like most rooms are puzzles, and you have to "solve" how to get through it to where you're going. Whereas in Limit, it's less about solving and more about execution. Often you see the intended path and how you're supposed to get through a room, but actually pulling it off is another matter. The Grappling room before Phantoon was unspeakably frustrating, and the only thing that saved me at the end was discovering, by desperation, that the spikes on top of the grapple blocks were fake and I could utilize walljumps safely the rest of the way.

There's a lot of creative ideas in this hack though. The Ice Beam room and getting the E-tank right after was pretty interesting. Ideas like that need to be utilized more.

IEven so, I'm pretty proficient at walljumping and IBJ, and they've helped me a lot in this hack thus far, but the sore lack of save points most of the time (especially in areas where they'd be really appreciated) is...maybe "hard" isn't the right word for it. Maybe the word I'm looking for to describe this hack is "unforgiving," or "punishing."

[P.JBoy]

The only insanely hard bit in Limit is getting plasma beam, which is optional. The bit before Phantoon and Phantoon is difficult too, but it only takes some [noembed]swift grappling[/noembed] to get past that bit, and you can collect a fair few energy tanks if you look hard enough. Do note that the spikes at the end aren't real.

[Foxhound3857]

That one item requiring the use of a Grapple Sidehopper is pretty nuts too.

Oh well, I just need to "git gud", then. There's a lot of tricky rooms in Limit, but at least with most situations I've encountered in this hack, I don't once feel like I've been "cheated." I just feel like I need to practice. And that's a good thing, IMHO.

Out of curiosity, what hacks would you guys consider brutally difficult, besides Impossible? So far, of the ones I've played (Z-Factor, Eris, Super Zero Mission, Phazon, Project Base, Hyper, Legacy, Redesign, and Ice Metal Uninstall), this one is the toughest.

Edit: Finished it. No Savestates. PHEW.

Clear time: 5:05
Collection rate: 85%

Tourian/Escape took two tries. 

[Aran;Jaeger]

I have a list of hardest hacks and hacks that haven't been beaten by humans yet, and I gladly provide that information, because it is (among other projects) the kind of things I'm focusing on and interested in.

So if the rule-set forbids out of bounds, GT Code, and Spazer+Plasma, those hacks so far are TAS-only:
SM. Kaizo
SM. Super Mega-Metroid X-2
SM. Glitchtroid (maybe humanly doable)
SM. Warfare (probably humanly doable)
SM. Lunatic Insane Hard wtf hardest (funnily the closest to humanly doable since it consists of doing a slightly changed Ceres in 13 seconds which has been done for the original game by a few people, but not for this hack)

Hardest hacks that have been beaten without tools (mostly only by myself though, and in few cases by some others from the community :heheh: ):
SM. Super Zero Mission (hard) v.2.4
SM. Cliffhanger
SM. Impossible
SM. Kaizo Possible
SM. RBO Impossible
SM. RBO Insane
SM. YP Hell
SM. Nocturn
SM. Noobsmasher
SM. Chararin
SM. Chararin 2
SM. Colors (extreme version)
SM. Hard Mode Nightmare
SM. Inverted
SM. New Zebes (insane mode)
SM. Precision
SM. I Wanna Be The Metroid
SM. Mission Rescue (hard mode)
SM. OHKO
SM. DOH
SM. One Hit Kill

[Foxhound3857]

I tried SZM Hard, that one expects you to Mockball or perform advanced tricks on just about every room. I barely managed to finish it on Normal. I doubt I'd ever be able to finish the Hard version, at least at my current level.

Thank you for that list though, I'll have to give some of those a try, for technical practice and benchmarking if nothing else.

Limit is behind me now though. Basically working down the list of 2 1/2 or higher hacks on the main list. Playing Redesign Axeii now. I've heard this one is pretty unforgiving as well, so I'll probably mosey over to that thread.