How to beat Enemy 585 in less than half an hour

After I started running this game, I quickly realized that it's held together with prayers and duct tape. Thus, I have compiled a list of tips for future runners of this game.

(TL;DR if you play in exactly the same way every time, the glitches will happen in the same ways at the same moments, allowing you to work around them.)

# Tip #0: Know what to expect

The game's main character is an entity you cannot control that moves at a set speed. Your job is to use your platform / springs / spikes / etc. to lead it to the end of each level. You may think this essentially makes the game an autoscroller, and there are some parallels, but don't be fooled; taking the fastest routes often requires some precision and finesse, and even a deathless run will be unbearably slow if you take just a few wrong turns.

# Tip #1: Don't run the game in Flashpoint

Unless you want to deal with frequent crashes, that is.

I'm not sure what was causing the "fatal errors" exactly, but the problem mostly went away once I switched to an unlocked .swf. I hear Supernova also works, if you'd rather use that.

# Tip #2: Know that barrels are trouble

## Phantom barrels

Sometimes, barrels that spawn off screen will be invisible. They still have their hitbox, and you can see them when they collide against walls. Fortunately, this only tends to happen in one specific level, and it's not very difficult to deal with; just run into them with Turner until they're gone. See [this run](https://www.speedrun.com/Enemy_585/runs/z5ld215y) for reference.

## Indestructible barrels

Barrels are supposed to break when they collide with each other. However, there's a glitch where they sometimes don't break. Of course, it always happens on the one cycle when you most need them to get out of the way... but fear not! They are far from unbeatable.

## Seemingly inconsistent cycles, and why they're actually your fault

Well, that's not really true: the game's spaghetti code is the true culprit.

From one run to another, you may notice that Enemy 585 gets killed by barrels, but not always in exactly the same spot from one run to another. The barrels spawn at a set rate, and they move at a set speed, just like Enemy 585. So what's going on?

This usually happens because your usage of the speed up function is inconsistent across runs. Unsurprisingly, the speed up function makes the game faster by a factor of 2. However, while the barrels do get spit out faster, it is *not* by a factor of 2. It roughly goes from 5.6s to 4.2s. I can only assume this happens because the cooldown is sped up while the animation is not.

## Moral of the story: find a route that works

Just keep playing the level until you find a path that gets you to the end reasonably fast without using checkpoints. This also means keeping your speed up usage consistent; slowing done for some parts is fine, as long as you always slow down in the same spots for roughly the same length of time, remaining consistent across every time you play the level.

# Tip #3: Cannons are not much more pleasant than barrels

In other words, they share many of the same problems. They're pretty consistent in their cycles though (and don't seem to be affected by changes in game speed), except the ones Turner is cursed with in 1-1. That being said, the solution there is the same as usual: experiment until you find something that works, then execute it every time.

# Tip #4: If a switch block fails to activate, blame yourself

This one is very straightforward, but it took me a while to notice while running the game, so I figure it's best to mention it here. If Enemy 585 or a barrel hits a switch block, and the colored blocks do not activate properly, it is almost certainly because a) Turner is covering up some blocks in the off position with his own body of blocks, preventing them from being turned on, or b) one or more off blocks stuck to Turner are currently over a solid tile.

# Tip #5: Taking fewer steps is not always faster

Of course, you should always aim to take the path that will lead you to take fewer steps. The thing is, if there is a way to take a couple fewer steps, but requires movement precise enough that it makes you slow down over the other method, don't bother.

Slowing down to normal speed usually loses more time than taking a slightly less efficient path at double speed.

# Tip #6: Pick a path

And stick to it. It's the only way to make this game fully predictable and consistent.

The number one thing to do in this game is to follow the intended path without making mistakes, while also using the speed up function as much as possible. When there are hazards like barrels or cannons, you may need to intentionally stall in some sections to line up with a more favorable cycle, but that's mostly it.

However, for some levels, you can...

# Tip #7: Look for sequence breaks

There aren't many, but they exist. The most notable one is in 1-2, and it saves at least 45 seconds if performed to perfection.

There's also one in 2-2, which I knew about but forgot to implement while I was still actively doing runs. You can see it in action [here](https://youtu.be/EKwFurrAqFw?t=2660).

I'm sure there are others, but those two are the only ones I was able to find.

# Conclusion

Find a good path, follow it without making mistakes, always play at double speed, and you're pretty much set.

If you're feeling curious, please give this game a try! While frustrating at first, it's not very difficult, and finding new faster routes is always very satisfying.

I don't care if you don't make your own routes and just use what I already came up with. In fact, I'd encourage you to... as long as you also try to find improvements, of course. My runs are good (or at least I hope they are), but what they are undoubtedly not is perfect. Have fun trying to top them!