13%
13% is the lowest amount of items in which a TAS can beat the game via defeating all major bosses while staying in-bounds.
Sniq authored the currently published TAS for the category, obsoleting the previous two Low% branches, which used the item sets from 14% Ice and 14% Speed.
It is possible that a human could theoretically complete a 13% run someday, but for now 14% is the in-bounds limit for humans running Low%.
Theoretical Human Categories
Traditional rules across the speedrunning community ban the use of simultaneous Left+Right inputs, since this usually requires hardware modification. Given that suitless Maridia without the use of Left+Right requires either Ice Beam, Gravity Suit, or Hi-Jump Boots, the most likely candidate for human-completable 13% categories under these conditions is based on the 14% Chargelice category that uses Draygon ammo underflow. With proper positioning and drop luck, it's possible to Crystal Flash at Draygon with a maximum Power Bomb count of only 10, as seen with the obsoleted Any% TAS that used underflow.
If Left+Right is allowed, the "PB+PB" branch is the most likely candidate, with the main obstacle being the spark suit generation at Mt. Everest, as seen in the TAS.
Another possible candidate for Left+Right is 14% xAmmo without the ammo; it's possible to destroy each Zebetite besides the first with only 10 missiles, by carefully manipulating the screen position, since Zebetites only regenerate health when on-screen. Normally this regeneration makes a Zebetite require 11 missiles to destroy. So far a very tough human-viable setup has been found for this, but it remains to be seen whether this is viable for a run.
The biggest obstacle towards human completion of the TAS branch of 13% is the spikesuit generation in Colosseum, given that it involves multiple instances of speedkeep movement in order to maintain dash speed in building the short charge.
Collected Items (TAS)
- Morphing Ball
- Bombs
- Charge Beam (for bosses)
- Speed Booster (for Zebetite skip, and building Spike Suits for Mt Everest, pre-Botwoon Hallway, and for exiting Draygon's room)
- Varia Suit (to survive MB2's rainbow beam)
- 2 Energy Tanks (to survive MB2's rainbow beam)
- 1 Reserve Tank (to survive MB2's rainbow beam, and to make the Everest Spark possible)
- 2 Missile Packs (Awakening and Moat) (to open red doors and defeat MB1)
- 2 Super Missile Packs (Early and Wrecked Ship (Left)) (to open green doors and defeat MB1)
- 1 Power Bomb Pack (Red Brinstar Elevator (Lower)) (to open orange doors)