Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils Speedrunning Notes
Any% - Belle (No Spark Bangle)

Introduction
Hello! This is a document that has been compiled by Metroid Crime (Discord: metroid_crime), based on notes originally written by TempestMask1000. I’ve further edited and expanded upon it, with IndyVillain providing notes. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!
If you haven’t beat the game already, you can click here to find instructions for unlocking a full save file.
This game has an autosplitter. Go to the autosplitter setting and check off the following levels for this route:
- Carnival - 1-2, 1-3, 1-5
- Ruins - 2-2, 2-3, 2-5
- Swamp - 3-1, 3-3, 3-5
- Library - 4-3, 4-4, 4-5
- Astral Temple - 5-2, 5-5
- Other - Belle’s House, The Cactus, The Relic Room, Blindgaze’s Temple
- Dialogue - Defeat Leadra
Livesplit Splits File: https://splits.io/atwk/export/livesplit?blank=1
SRC: https://www.speedrun.com/curse_crackers
Fully Unlocked Save File: https://www.speedrun.com/curse_crackers/resources
General Notes
- Released by indie developer Colorgrave in 2022.
- 16-ish-bit style game, reminiscent of Gameboy Color in style and palette choice.
- There are no health recovery items! You can buy one from the shop but it’s expensive, and you only have one slot. You have 3 bars of health, and when you die, you will reset at the last checkpoint.
- Curse Crackers has several qualities seen in typical platformer games, such as defeating enemies by jumping on them, and having frequent checkpoints.
- All of Bonnie's minions are inflatable, which is why they explode into a puff of air!
- Belle, as an acrobat, is able to perform a few tricks that let her jump high or cross long distances.
- Run - Hold a trigger to make Belle run. However, if you happen to press both, one input cancels the other.
- Slide - When you press down while Belle is moving, she performs a short slide attack which can hurt enemies and launch some obstacles. Namely the rolling barrels on some levels.
- Long Jump - When you slide and press the jump button, Belle does a long vaulting leap that's great for going fast. Consequently, this won't hurt enemies, meaning it can be potentially easy to get hit.
- High Jump - Holding down while not moving and then pressing the jump button makes Belle go higher this way. She also does a little "ta-da" pose upon sticking the landing if you don't immediately do something after. The animation doesn't waste time.
- Chime Bouncing - Chime, the bell companion, can be thrown into enemies and breaks blocks. If Belle makes contact with him from a below angle, she'll bounce off of him. The timing can sometimes be tricky. Chime can also act as an extra jump, which sometimes is essential for some levels.
- Bounce Extending - It's possible to go much higher when bouncing off of springs, enemies, and obstacles if the jump button is pressed upon the right moment of contact. It's not a necessity, but it is there.
- Star Shield - A well timed shield will block incoming damage, but you will automatically be propelled into the air and have no control over Belle.
- Curse Crackers will always recognize any collected items made during any attempt of a stage and save them, even if you exit but don't reach the end goal for the first time.
- For this category, there are two codes that come into play from the Cactus Room, which can only be used in all files once the player beats the main story for the first time. The major one unlocks all stages, meaning you don't have to reach the end goals for 98% of the run.
- However, in the library world, you still have to do Stage 5-2 and beat Beakston and Bonnie to unlock the gate to the Astral world. In order to activate that gate, you'll need to have 30 Ardel Roses collected.
- In the Astral world, you don't need to do Stage 1 with Tedra at the end, but you have to beat Stage 2 with Leer as the boss. Once done, Belle must go to the temple and reach the big doors to speak to Blindgaze. After conversing with her, the last three stages open up. Belle can then go straight to Stage 5-5.
- The other code used unlocks the Mask relic, which gives Belle a double jump and can give her a brief moment of invincibility as a secondary action.
The Run 🎞
- The runs starts when you select Belle from the character select of a new save file.
- Press start and then the action button to skip the opening cutscene.
- Mash through the next dialogue in Belle’s house, open the menu, select “Exit Area” and confirm.
Cactus Room 🎞
- Located in the wasteland above the starting area map, there's a little cactus icon all the way to the right.
- In order to enter the Cactus Room, the game requires beating the main story once.
- To input a code, jump on the floor symbols until the desired symbol rolls up. Once all four form a correct sequence, throw Chime at the big bell.

- Unlocks all levels
- If failed, the level numbers will be blue instead of red on the overworld.
- <-12-6-3-7 (<- GOING RIGHT TO LEFT)

- Unlocks the Jump Mask
- If failed, there is no Jump Mask in the relic room.
- 8-3-0-5-> (-> GOING LEFT TO RIGHT)
World 1 (Circus)
Stage 1-2 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 1st room, very visible
- 2nd Rose: 4th room, right at entrance
- 3rd Rose: 5th room, crawl on floor of left side
Stage 1-3 (2 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 1st room, very visible
- 2nd Rose: 3rd room, very visible
Stage 1-5 (1 rose) 🎞
World 2 (Ruins)
Stage 2-2 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 2nd room, high up, have to jump
- 2nd Rose: 4th room, very visible
- 3rd Rose: 5th room, crawl space
Stage 2-3 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 1st room high up, near entrance
- 2nd Rose: 3rd room, crawl space above lava
- 3rd Rose: 5th room, top left in alcove
Stage 2-5 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 5th room, jump up to the right
- 2nd Rose: 6th room, high up
- 3rd Rose: 7th room, very visible
World 3 (Swamp)
Stage 3-1 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 2nd room, lower down
- 2nd Rose: 3rd room, crawl space
- 3rd Rose: 6th room, crawl space
Stage 3-3 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 4th room, lower down
- 2nd Rose: 5th room double barrel room
- 3rd Rose: 6th room on the way out
Stage 3-5 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 3rd room alcove above exit, can’t see unless jump
- 2nd Rose: 4th room, jump above checkpoint to the left
- 3rd Rose: 6th room, barrel coin room, jump up to the left
World 4 (Library)
Stage 4-3 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 4th room, high up above exit
- 2nd Rose: 5th room, highly visible below shield thrower guy, above a pit
- 3rd Rose: 7th room, double ball level, top right above shield lad
Stage 4-4 (3 roses) 🎞
- 1st Rose: 2nd room, top left-middle of the room after long fall down into pit
- 2nd Rose: 5th room, Chime bounce up to the left after the checkpoint in the third room, into the cannons. After grabbing the rose, avoid the cannons and fall back down to the left.
- 3rd Rose: 4th room, fall back down into the section to the left and go right immediately to fall onto a rose
Stage 4-5 (No Roses) 🎞
- Beakston normally takes 3 hits to defeat, but there is an insta-kill trick.
- Before you can do that, he starts off with a fire breath attack, launching multiple shots from the background that go to the foreground. You can still get hurt when they're in the background. Avoid them.
- After his first set of fire attacks, he goes to the lower left corner. Immediately use Chime to bounce him diagonally into the pit below. He instantly dies.
- It’s a secret trick from the devs, meant to mimic a Smash Bros spike.
- The intended way to fight him is to throw Chime and knock him into the spiked ceiling. He also does a series of charging attacks at you. The cycle repeats upon finishing.
- Bonnie takes 7 hits to defeat.
- Get close to Bonnie and then use your Star Shield to bounce into her body. If you do this too quickly, or too slowly, she might jump around. Just keep your distance and keep spamming the attack.
- Helpful Information:
- She summons a shield of four spikey orbs that always spin counter-clockwise. Chime can get rid of each upon hitting them. You’ll want to hit an orb with Chime, jump on Bonnie, then repeat. If done right, she won't be able to use her attacks at all. You can’t double bounce on her because she has invincibility after the first hit. Belle bouncing off of them will take a life.
- Aside from throwing her scythe around like a boomerang, she can also throw two green goo-skull like spirits which bounce around the field and you can't do anything about them until they vanish.
- Her scythe throws can also create shockwaves.
Enter the hole next to 4-5 to get to the door to the Astral World. Talk to the purple NPC and mash through the dialogue, and then enter the portal that appears.
World 5 (Astral)
Immediately go left to enter the Area Map.
Stage 5-2 (No Roses) 🎞
- Leer takes 20 hits to defeat and does not stagger from damage.
- You want to get very close to her (basically inside her hitbox) and then pelt her with Chime repeatedly.
- Helpful Information:
- She can launch an eight-way feather spread attack.
- Her arrow attack can come into the left, right, or middle sections of the fight's stage. Those arrows can summon a temporary little gravel spread on the floor that causes damage.
- If Leer charges across the screen, she's vulnerable for the first moments of the animation leading up to the attack. Otherwise, it is possible to sometimes jump on her during the move and not take damage. Chime can also hit her in this state.
On the Area Map, go back to the house at the center bottom of the map.
Go right, try to enter the door, and hit Start to skip the dialogue.
Speak to Blindgaze 🎞 in order to unlock the final three levels. She is located through the giant door in the section before the Astral overworld. Start her dialogue and then hit Start to skip the rest, exit to the Area Map.
Stage 5-5 (No Roses) 🎞
- Normally, by this point in the game, Belle wouldn't have Chime due to story reasons at the end of 5-3. But skipping this keeps them present until the boss fight begins, as Belle now uses Bonnie's scythe.
- FINAL BOSS - Leadra
- This fight consists of three phases. Once she takes enough damage, she flies off and Bonnie creates skull platforms for you to bounce across to get to the next stage.
- Bonnie's scythe will land more hits on Leadra if Belle has taken a point of damage. However, taking damage can also spawn green spirit flames which can replenish her health by one point if she collects them. Don’t take green orbs unless you’re about to die.
- Helpful Information:
- As a fusion of Tedra and Leer, her attacks take from both individual fights.
- She has Leer's feather spread move and can charge at you.
- From Tedra's moveset, she can summon spike balls from the top to fall down. You will not get hurt by the grey ones.
- She also goes into the background to rain magic arrows on you. It is possible to hurt her before the sprite shows up in the backdrop.
Once Leadra is defeated during the final (third) phase, time ends on the frame that the text box for the following cutscene pops up.