Any%

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

Base: ~2:18 (Medium) Ratomatic Skip: ~1:59 (-19s) (Expert/Optimal) Ratomatic Skip + Gate Skip: ~1:53 (-6s)

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.

Head to the locked door and bump into the left side of it to aggro the mouse on the other side. Kill it with your gas attack and swap into it through the door. Hit the switch to activate the mouse sucker and move to the the target thing to get sucked up, perform the rat-o-matic skip as you get sucked up. Hop out of the rat-o-matic and head to the mouse hole. Clip through it and either perform gate skip (optimal) or beat the level normally (safe/beginner).

Killing the mouse: You need to move to the left side of the door to aggro the mouse. After that, it is best to move just to the left of the centre of the door. Doing this has a chance of getting the mouse stuck against the door, letting you kill it in one "cycle". If the mouse doesn't get stuck it will run around in circles, first running away, then running to you to attack. You can't hit the mouse when it runs away, so stop attacking to conserve energy. If you kill the mouse while it is running away, it might die too far away to swap into it. If this happens, you might still be able to jump into it by moving away from the door, jumping out of the king rat, and moving back to the door as Evo. Evo has a smaller hit box and so can get closer to the mouse than the king rat, possibly letting you jump into it. If that doesn't work, you have to reset the level.

There are three cues you can use to help kill the mouse. The first, and probably best, is if you turn around and zoom the camera out after positioning yourself left-of-centre at the door. This lets you see into the mouse room and know where the mouse is. Only attack when the mouse is at the door or very close to it AND moving toward the door. The second cue is an audio cue for the mouse. You can hear its wheels squeaking when you aggro it, letting you know that the mouse has seen you and is moving toward you. You can also hear it use its tail attack, telling you that it is nearby and attacking. Third, you can hear it die so you know when to swap. The final cue is the blue bar on the bottom left that lets you know how much health it has and if you are damaging it or not.

Movement toward the exit: There are a series of jumps right before the teleporter. Do not take the first small jump at full speed; it will screw up the second jump. You can boost again after you land the first jump. Move to the side before going over the lowered door because sometimes you don't jump all the way over it. The side is sloped up and you can walk over it if the jump fails.

Techniques

Rat-o-matic skip: It is possible to glitch the game so that when you pop out of the pipe that brings you to the rat-o-matic, you get launched up instead of dropped down. By holding left or right (or, ideally, down) you can hop out of the rat-o-matic and skip it entirely. To do this, you need to be on the target to get sucked up by the pipe when the timer reaches zero, but off the target after you start getting sucked up. The easiest way to understand this is by moving over the target (and still be moving) when the timer hits zero. You will pause when the timer hits zero, but after you start getting sucked up, you start moving again. By the time you disappear into the pipe, you will be off of the target.

The fastest way to do the trick is to go to the far end of the target and be moving toward the opening in the cage when the timer hits zero. Once the cutscene starts, continue holding down+boost. The momentum you have carries over to the jump out of the pipe and allows you to hold down+boost to get out of the rat-o-matic, then switch to right to move toward the door.

The easiest and most consistent way to do this trick is to position yourself on the edge of the target and wait for the the timer to hit zero. When it does, hold boost and whatever direction is away from the target and keep holding that until you disappear in the pipe. This strat doesn't give you any momentum for jumping out of the rat-o-matic, so you can't do the optimal down+boost strat. Instead, hold right or down-right to get out of the machine.

DO NOT PUSH B WHILE ON THE TARGET. The mouses attacking animation changes the mouse's ID. The game is looking for a "mouse" not an "attacking mouse". If you are attacking, the game assumes you are not on the target and will suck up a different mouse.

If you miss the ratomatic skip and end up in the machine, go left around the electric fence, dodge the crusher, and then go out the rotating thingy that the pusher pushes you towards. This brings you back to the start of the level. From there, just head to the mouse hole.

Mouse hole clip: Basically, just mash yourself between the ball thing and the left wall of the entrance, then bash your head against it until you get through, changing your angle and stuff as needed.

Gate skip (Optimal) VIDEO TUTORIAL SOON(TM)