Any%
Route options and benchmark times: Only route: ~1:55
- Kill and control the rabbit
- Kill and control the heli-rabbit
- Cliff clip, collect heads, exit
Movement as the husky: The husky runs faster when it uses its bite attack. You have plenty of energy to run and kill a rabbit, so no need to use the "tap B" technique.
Killing the rabbit: Attacking the closest rabbit and chasing it toward the cliff is probably fastest, but killing a different rabbit might be good if the rabbits move in a weird way. Generally the rabbits will jump away from you 3 times, then turn to use their attacks. Bite your target and follow it until it attacks. When it attacks, stand still while biting it so you don't push it around and start missing your attack. No need to dodge its attack.
Killing the heli-rabbit: It takes two ground-pounds to kill the heli-rabbit. After your first ground-pound, let go of B and then hold it again. You will automatically ground-pound again when you have enough energy. You can hit the first attack as long as you are on the ground on the other side of the igloo, even if you aren't in swapping range. This means you can ground-pound, short hop closer while your energy recharges, then ground-pound again. If you stand on top of the ice block, you can spam the R button until you swap into the rabbit, but it is delayed because you have to fall a bit first. If you are on the ground beside the rabbit, you can't spam R, but can swap faster with proper timing. The rabbit dies after the 6th shockwave from the groundpound. Swapping speed doesn't matter that much though.
Movement as the heli-rabbit: How high the heli-rabbit flies is based partly on how long you spend accelerating while close to the ground. The longer you spend close to the ground, the higher you go. This is used to fly over the wall after collecting the first head by flying low up the slope until reaching its peak. It is also used for the cliff clip and to help control movement.
When flying over the walrus area to reach the second and third heads, let go of A briefly before you reach the opening in the wall. This adjusts your height properly so that you don't bonk into the little bump at the opening.
Techniques
Short hopping: Jumping while the analog stick is in the neutral position causes the rabbit to jump a shorter height. Use this technique to make small adjustments in your position.
Cliff clip: Using the heli-rabbit, you can fly onto the cliff that is supposed to be only reachable by a walrus. There are 3 ways to do this: "air half-pipe", "bonking", and "the backup". Air half-pipe is the fastest, bonking is the old way to do it, and the backup is the fastest way to do it if you missed your first attempt.
The air half-pipe makes use of the ability to gain more height by flying close to the ground (see movement as the heli-rabbit). The layout of the approach to the cliff is like a half-pipe, hence the name. Fly low to the ground and accelerate upward following the curve of the ground, then run over the cliff. Sometimes you have to slow down a bit to make sure you hit the cliff at the height of your jump.
The bonking strat involves bonking into the jump right before the water, then holding A and flying toward the cliff. It is slightly slower than the air half-pipe because you bonk instead of flying smoothly.
The backup strat is to land in the water at the bottom of the cliff and flying up from there. You must accelerate up from the water or from low in the air to get extra height (see movement as the heli-rabbit). When you reach your maximum height hold forward to get on the cliff. In addition to starting your flight from low down, you also must be the correct distance away from the cliff. If you are too close, you don't fly as high. If you are too far, you won't be able to move far enough to make it over the cliff before falling. Play around with this strat to get a feel for where you're supposed to be. It is very important because it is the fastest backup strat by a lot.
It probably doesn't matter where on the cliff you aim. The closer parts are higher up and the lower parts are farther away. That said, we usually aim for the same spot every time, so maybe it matters.
