Hey Everyone,

I thought I would post a little guide on how warping works as this information isn’t readily available anywhere. Thanks to Link_7777 for helping demystify some of these. If there’s anything else I missed or anything I said that needs correction, please let me know.

Warping Guide—

How to warp: Get 3 balloons.

What does warping do?: It warps you forward either 2 or 3 cities (flips with each input prior to warp, see 'Manipulating warp destination' below) but it only ever warps you forward 1 stage layout. So for example, if you warped in stage 1 (New York City), you may either end up in Paris or Frankfurt, but the stage layout you get will be stage 2 (which is traditionally London without warps).

Neat warp tricks— Manipulating warp destination: As mentioned above, a warp will either send you forward 2 or 3 cities which was seemingly random. However, Link_7777 discovered that each input made prior to initiating a warp will cause the destination to flip back and forth from 2 to 3 cities. Based off this information Tigdwan discovered that if you hold an input, it will lock you into that warp destination for as long as you hold it. Since 'select' counts as an input but is not needed anywhere else in the run, you can hold select the entire run to guarantee you always warp forward the same number of stages. The optimal route appears to be warping between Paris and Tokyo as many times as possible. To guarantee this, if you hold select after starting the game but before any other inputs are made, you will warp forward 3 stages for the entire run as long as you continue to hold select. This appears to continue to work if you have taken a death, so long as you never let go of select.

Balloon global timer: In any given stage, the balloons spawn on a global timer. It is believed the timer starts somewhere around stage screen transition. The first balloon will spawn after 29.8 seconds; balloons following spawn every 34.1 seconds. The global timer resets to 0 upon death and restarts during the countdown when starting again. The timer continues to run even as the game is paused. For a good example of how this works, refer to Link_7777’s All Levels run as he uses it many times.

London 11 oil trick: If you are in the London stage, and have an oil count of 11 when you grab a balloon, a second balloon will spawn immediately. This can be done repeatedly as long as you have 11 oil each time you grab the balloon.

Paris hearts: If you are in the Paris stage, you can summon a heart which counts as a balloon. To do this, you must have an oil count of 0, and you must press B while the car in a turning motion. You will see a small heart spawn. The heart will continue to spawn for the remainder of the stage even if you have now picked up oil.

Tokyo rabbit: In the Tokyo stage, you can summon a rabbit which counts as a balloon. To do this, you must jump over a spike wall. The spike wall appears when you get trapped by the cat on a single level. To initiate this purposely, you can just move back and forwards several times until you see the cat appear multiple times, a spike will appear from the bottom of the ground—these spikes will continue to spawn as long as you remain on that level. When you jump over the spike, a rabbit will spawn from the sky and head downwards towards your car. Once you get the rabbit or he flies off screen, a second rabbit will immediately follow. Getting the rabbit can be tough as his movement is a bit unpredictable; he generally moves downward towards the centre of the screen but can stray left or right.

FYI--- NYC UFO: Sometimes a UFO can appear in the New York City stage. This is an extra life, not a balloon. To spawn this UFO, you must shoot 10 oil, and the car must be on the left half of the first 3 platforms that you start the stage on when you shoot the 10th shot (so if you were to divide those platforms straight down the centre, you must be on the left side of centre). The oil shot counter does not reset until shot 256, so this trick is only viable for level 1 unless you are keeping count of all your oil shots along the way. This extra life can be a very handy safety strat for new runners, especially in All Levels categories, or even during marathon runs.

FYI-- Paris Shooting Star/Comet: I am not certain how this spawns, but it does not appear to do anything (you can see it on stage 15 of my All Levels run in 21:09).

I think that should cover most of it!

Cheers -bissmark