Any%

Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route

(Base) Dog Kill + FBM jump: ~1:46 (Medium) + Cutscene skip: ~1:36 (-10s) (Medium) + Bear skip: ~1:31 (-5s) (Hard/Optimal) + FBM jump with mouse: ~1:30 (-1s)

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.

The route is as follows:

1. Kill the dog
2. Cutscene skip opening the door, kill bear during cutscene
3. Turn on the tap, cutscene skip into the dog OR bear skip (see below)
4. Get to the exit using the FBM jump

Killing the dog: The dog is on a cycle. It is not possible to get an "early" cycle by going fast, so movement before getting to the dog is not so important. Get on the side hill, hold Z, and wait for the dog to move in front of you. Using a well timed sequence of boosting forward and tail-attacking, you can hit the dog. Two attacks kill the dog. After two attempts (successful or not, and sometimes after only one), the dog will start attacking you. Swapping out of the mouse and back into it will de-aggro the dog.

Cutscene skip movement: Movement during the first cutscene is a combination of left and up. Movement here is not hard because you should be able to see yourself for most of the cutscene. Position yourself just outside of the cave facing into it. Shoot all your missiles, then do a fast recharge and shoot your missiles again. The bear takes two full energy bars of missiles to kill, so its faster to only fast recharge once, but play as Evo a bit longer so that your energy is fully recharged instead of 70% charged. You cannot jump out of the dog if you are inside the cave. Do not fully recharge if you are doing bear skip.

For the second cutscene skip, just hold up for a few seconds. You can transition into up-right or right if you're feeling bold, but you risk falling back down to the start of the level.

Bear skip: To turn on the tap, you must normally play as the bear. However, if you kill the bear while it is on the switch, then hit the switch as the dog. The game will activate the switch if the dead bear is on it when you touch it. This strat lets you skip the bear NAC, but does not let you cutscene skip. Cutscene skipping here is overrated, so bear skip is probably faster.

FBM jump: Position yourself a bit to the right of the corner pointing toward the angled slope and boost forward. If you bounce off the jump, you are too far to the left. If you don't go high enough, you are not hitting the jump head on and must adjust your angle.

FBM jump with mouse: During the tap cutscene, go outside and switch to the mouse, then move in position to the FBM jump location. Very small time save for the difficulty.

Techniques

Cutscene skipping: Transitioning between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts allows you to retain control of your character during the cutscene. The first cutscene skip in this level is frame-perfect.

Fast recharging: Evo recharges energy for his A and B abilities faster than some animals, so you can recharge faster by jumping out of an animal and then back into it.