Originally, I wanted to have this as a video tutorial, but I really suck at speaking with a script right now, so here it is in text format. You should probably watch a run along with reading this.

Speedrunning Information and Basic Sacrifice Ending Routing

While not required, it’s recommended to pick up the Japanese version of Maken X as it is a lot easier and safer to run. This version has an easy stunlock for the Sangokai Gatling Gun, nerfed damage for Claw and Grenade enemies in the Lisbon level, and had EX attacks not requiring health in order to use them. In the main speedrun category, Sacrifice Ending, the basic route for levels starts in Japan continuing on to a plane, then escape from it without brainjacking one of the pilots. After Maken crashes the aircraft in India go to Moscow to London to Amsterdam then Lyon. At the start of that level, its important to talk to Blademaster Tyrus to unlock the required next level, Lisbon. After breezing through the conveyor belt by alternating between them starting from the right.one, there are very important choices to answer to lock in the specific ending. First off, say yes to Kou to go to the Amazon and see Doctor Guiness and no to Blademaster Kitty, the person in the red helmet that you met in Moscow. Amazon is also a mostly straightforward level until the mini labyrinth cave system in the 2nd half and finally end up in The Forbidden City with Kou and finish with Kei.

Character Information

Most characters have 4 attack options, a forward multi hit combo, a neutral attack(s), an EX attack, and a downward strike. A multi hit combo started by tilting the stick in a forward and mashing the attack button. For the neutral attack, you can either stand still or tilt back on the stick and attack. Holding the attack button charges the EX attack and releasing it unleashes it. Downward strikes are simple by just jumping and pressing attack while falling. The first and last character you control is Kei Sagami, the most basic and simplest character to learn. She has moderately quick 3-hit basic sword strikes with single powerful strikes for her neutral/back and EX attacks. During this run, we mostly only control Hakke Andrey, who is a horrific Russian monstrosity that hilariously ejects scalpels from? With? His tongue. That projectile is an EX attack that is essential for both getting through some levels and killing enemies at a distance fast. He also has a 3 hit combo, a single neutral attack, and a powerful downward strike. He has the best jump height and can jump up to the switch in London without going around to jump up to smaller steps. The last new character is Kou, Kei’s childhood friend. As more detailed in the manga, Kou gets powered up with a different magical sword other than Maken during his visit to the Amazon. He also has a 3 hit combo with a strong stab neutral move, but doesn’t have an EX attack.

Combat Tips and Exploits

In general, Locking onto enemies slows you as you approach the enemy. It is generally a good idea to quickly run up to enemies to within attacking range and then locking on to them. In the first level, Kei’s EX attack will one hit KO all the basic enemies in the level.Charging up EX attacks against Hakke Andrey also very effective and fast. He can optimally fighting against the Sangokai Claw goes from a 3 hit combo then a strong neutral attack then another 3 hit combo and repeat. Sangokai Sword Breakers get one hit KO’d by a downward or EX attacks by him. Using neutral attacks on the Sangokai big shield guys will push them farther and will make the slow door opening a bit faster. It’s a bit more trickier with the Sangokai Grenades; to take them down, go up to them and wait for the start of their attack animation. Jump over them and quickly do 2 downward strike as you land behind them. If you react to the start of the attack animation fast enough, Grenade would not have a hitstun animation and you can do another 3 hit combo on top of it. There is a very easy stunlock with the Gatling Gun by just mashing the 3 hit combo. The butterfly mobsters can fly up high enough that they can’t be hit from the ground, so start the battle by jumping up and bring them down with a downward strike then 3 hit combo them to death. In Lisbon, the hardest level in the game, there are a couple of tricky fights. When facing against the 3 Claw enemies, going to a corner forces them into a single file line for some reason. When comboing them, it's very important to move away from the other people to not get hit by them. After the trio of Blades, 2 more of them drop down and have a Sangokai Grenade tossing out grenades from the bridge. Staying under the bridge is significant to not get hit by grenades, but there is still a chance to get caught in the blast radius, so also pay attention to where they land. In the 2nd half of Amazon, ranged EX attacks are essential to destroying the floating robots. There is a kinda simple routed cycle of how to get through it. During the Forbidden City, most of the forced floating platforms encounters are really broken and their AI won’t trigger to attack the player until they get close. In the penultimate battle with the 2 chinese dragon enemies, it's a lot easier to rush them. Sometimes they will look like they will whip the tail at you, so jump back to avoid them. Other times, they will charge at you, but blocking by facing away from them will block and end up swiping their tail at you. Once in a while they might jump up but hitting them from the ground sends them straight back down. For Geist’s first phase, rushing him is always a good option. When he does a charge up for a big swing, get behind him for optimal critical damage. After he transitions into his 2nd phase, there will be glowing orbs shooting projectiles that you’ll need to hit back at them which gets kinda easier by backing up a bit beforehand. After that sequence, Geist will come down and will only become flashingly vulnerable subsequently after a bullet wave or a charge attack. It’s a bit faster to get hit by the rolling charge, but doesn’t save any time to get hit by the multiple energy waves.

“Double Jump” Exploit

In this game, it gets really finicky when you take damage while in the air since jumping is the most essential tool to avoid damage. In the first couple of frames of being damaged in the air and I think it kinda gets confused about if your on the ground or not and allows you to jump in the air again.The “Double Jump” Exploit has been compelling to find uses for. At first Rasha, the person who found the exploit, only used it for Amsterdam which saved over 3 minutes from the run, but with it definitely had potential and now there are currently 2 more known ways to use this exploit, at Moscow to completely avoid waiting for the truck to slowly back up so you can use it to advance and in the plane level to skip triggering the moving platforms and parkouring over cargo. For the level skip in Amsterdam, you use the Gatling Gun enemy’s range attack at the apex of the jump in order to hop over the gate blocking the exit level point. Its sadly the most RNG heavy part of the run, so it might take a couple of tries and maybe also a death or 2 before you get through it. For the Moscow truck skip, you wanna run diagonally at the start and try to make the missile hit on the corner and jump up into the blast radius for that double jump. There hasn’t been a consistent way to exploit the plane one using visual or audio cues, but you have to use the Sangokai cannon’s ranged attack. I don’t think there will be anymore possibilities to use it in other categories right now, but anything’s possible.