#mirarpg

prior to the discovery of what i've been calling the "siffrin ending" for lack of a better term, low% runners were essentially able to choose; get shieldless and grab a buff from odile to make up for the lack of a shield, or just get the shield. both options add a mantatory 1%, so the choice was really up to what you felt would save you the most time in the long run. i think people still preferred to just get the shield before since odile's slower to act, but don't quote me on that.

anyways - since both routes had a required percent, it was mostly up to user choice. i'm assuming OP/bonnie didn't get the odile buff, though - there'd be no way to know for sure what happened here without the rpgsave, but if that IS true, then yes - going shieldless AND without odile's buff is mandatory for a low% run now. that puts us at 46% minimum, compared to the previous 47%

the complications come with the XP. see, for those who haven't gotten odile's buff, i wouldn't blame you - it's out of the way and requires a lot of tough fights. you'll usually fight a pretty massive sadness along the way, getting you that mandatory +1% and a ton of XP. we usually route around this, only doing crucial fights. it's very optimized. now, though, since the boss XP isn't allowed, i'm guessing there'll be more grinding pre-House. i wouldn't be surprised if we have to stick around in A5 a lot longer than before, the "bees" there are very convenient to grind. (for those who had phobia settings turned on - "bees" are just a certain type of sadness, they're not actual bees. they're annoying though, but they're easy to grind.)

tldr: you've somehow discovered an entire new ending. in doing this, low% runs now save a single percent at the cost of several more hours. the things we do to get numbers to go small!