Oh yeah, that 3-3 strat is definitely faster and clever. Lowered the time a little.
Yeah, I knew about and used the 3-4 trick.
There was some code which assumed that the very existence of switches in the level determined whether switch doors should start open or closed, without actually checking their pressed state. Which was a false assumption even before I made the block change?? It should be fixed. Also, this made me realize two cool things and one really silly thing you can do with switches...
Oh, that's good. I'll go with that. (Though I'm a little sad since there are like four different strats for getting a box to the right side of the teleporter to kill the snake.) This also called my attention to how you can still "die" while the time improvement screen is up, so I fixed that: once you enter the "time trial level finished" state, the girls no longer check for hazards, gates, collectibles, etc.
Yes, that 3-9 strat is what I originally wanted people to have to do. There turned out to be an easier way that I couldn't elegantly prevent, but the cool way is faster, so I'm happy. You optimized the first part better, though.
Also, some changes I decided to make upon starting Area 4: to make them more interesting, Animate Armors now turn into solid platforms upon death (and align to half-tiles). And while it probably won't be used in official levels (if only because I think it requires having an "incomplete" gate), they revive if they hit Unmute gates.