Any%

Route options and benchmark times: no cutscene skips: ~2:28 cutscene skips: ~2:23 It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

Optimal route:

1. Kill the foxes, the vulture, and the speaker in the first area. Kill the vulture last.
2. Swap into the vulture and carry a fox to the first switch/second speaker.
3. Drop the fox near the first switch, hit the switch and swap into the fox (small cutscene skip here with no associated movement).
4. Use the fox to blow up the speaker, swap back into the vulture.
5. Carry the fox to the area above the scorpion pit switch, dropping the fox just short of the switch.
6. Hit the switch with a vulture hitbox extension, swap into the fox for a cutscene skip. Hold up and maybe wiggle a bit to the right during the cutscene.
7. Destroy the nearby speaker, then destroy the nearby health box and immediately jump out of the fox and back into it. This will remove you from your "dizzy" state. 8 ) Grab the health if you need it or if it is convenient and you want to be safe
8. Turn the O's into X's. The last one can be hit underwater. You may need to time your jumps properly to make it work. You want to land as far forward as possible on the first platform so it deactivates as late as possible. You also want to land on the third platform as early as possible so it activates as soon as possible.
9. Reach the opposite shore by spin-attacking. Spin-attack while in the water to avoid taking damage. There is a specific spot that is most consistent to make it up to the shore. Watch crackerbean's or mcill's runs (any category) to see where this is.
10. Blow up the speaker and head to the end. Dizzy walking is faster than removing the dizziness, but you can continue using the spin attack to delay the dizzy effects.

Safe Route: So, it turns out there is no "safe route". I'll make one up right now. Perform step 1 as described above. Then use animal stacking to carry both the camel and the fox across the pit. Hit the switch, then use the camel to blow up the speaker. Get back in the vulture and use animal stacking to carry both the camel and the fox to the scorpion den. Use the camel to kill all of the scorpions, except maybe the one on the clifftop, that might be playing it too safe. Grouping the scorpions up is faster than killing one at a time. Once the scorpions are dead, this level is very safe. Perform steps 5-11 as described above. You can watch mcill's or crackerbean's 99% runs (not any%) to see this type of scorpion fight in action. There's no video of this "route" because I made it up just now.

Avoiding scorpions (for the optimal route): To avoid taking scorpion damage, fly just to the left of the tree on the far end of the pond, then turn and fly straight to the switch. I think this path causes one of the two problem scorpions to walk into the scorpion den as it chases you, preventing it from hitting you. The other scorpion will always chase you. Try to time your jumps to avoid its lightning attack.

Strategies for step 1: The vulture is on a cycle: it only flies low enough to be hit for a little bit before flying up again. Therefore, fast/slow times for step 1 depend on making/losing vulture cycles. Making/losing cycles in turn is mostly dependent on killing the foxes fast. You want to group the foxes up so that your cannon AOE hits all of them. Current strats involve teleporting straight forward after taking 1-2 steps forward from the entrance teleporter, then rotating the camera to face the foxes. Blast the foxes while running away from them, rotating the camera as necessary to stay on target. You have the choice of destroying the speaker before or after killing the foxes. Destroying the speaker first is recommended because you spend less time waiting for the cannon to rotate. To do this, aim at the speaker while you are spawning, then shoot it as soon as you can. Afterwards, turn around and walk a few steps past the starting point and teleport as described above, then follow the steps as described above. To destroy the speaker after killing the foxes, simply rotate the camera and walk toward the speaker. Shoot the speaker when the cannon is in position. Mcill destroys the speakers first, but crackerbean prefers to kill the foxes first, so you can refer to their runs (any category) to see examples of these different strats. In either case, once you have destroyed both speaker and foxes you should rotate the camera toward the vulture (or rather, to the spot in the vulture cycle where it flies low enough to be hit) and walk towards that area. Holding Z really helps with aiming here. When the vulture is in range, blast it. Don't walk too close or the vulture will aggro and leave its cycle, putting it out of range again. You can kill the vulture in one volley if you have full energy. If the vulture doesn't die in one volley, you have two choices. First, you can wait for a second cycle and finish it off then. Second, you can walk forward and aggro the vulture. The vulture will fly up, but then fly down right in your face to hit you. When it does this, back up while holding Z and blast it.

Techniques

Hitbox extensions: Animals with melee attacks can have their hitboxes extended in the direction of its attack by using the melee attack. This extension can go through walls and floors to hit things on the other side.

Cutscene skipping: Swapping between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts allows you to retain control of your character during a cutscene.

Animal stacking: It is possible to stack animals so that the vulture can carry two animals at a time. Carry the cannon camel to a dead fox, land, and drop the camel while you are on the ground. The vulture will be perfectly centered on the camel. Without moving, push R to swap from the vulture into the fox. As the fox, jump on top of the vulture, then swap back into the vulture. As the vulture. hit B to pick up the camel and then start flying. The fox will stay on top of the vulture as long as you are flying.