[big][big]What is Johnny Upgrade and How Do I Begin Speedrunning It?[/big][/big] Johnny Upgrade is a flash game with a set map you must go through, collecting coins to get upgrades so you can collect more coins to get more upgrades and so on. Eventually, you will get to the final goal - killing the boss in the bottom right corner. Over that period, you will need clever tactics to maximize coins/time while still getting the necessary upgrades to overcome the boss.
To begin speedrunning, I would recommend doing a couple blind runs to get accustomed to the map and coin locations. You should probably try running glitchless first, or at least No Major Glitches categories (specifics for these categories will be detailed later). Once you are ready, look at the specific guides and run videos and try to practice those routes. Even practice with your own routes from time to time.
If you ever have questions or concerns, please join the discord server. We have a great community of helpful runners, trying to crack the code (literally sometimes, in Eddie’s case) of this game. Join by clicking here.
[big] Glossary [/big]
JU = Johnny Upgrade Cat = Category AG = All glitches, to describe a subcategory of any% where all glitches and clips are allowed Gless = Glitchless NMG = No major glitches, the other any% subcategory where only floor clip is allowed. Coin room/pit = The room underneath the spawn that you can warp to with a floor clip. Coin grinding/farming = Getting as much money as possible, as quick as possible DJ = Double jump, which is a category, a any% coin grinding strat, and just double jumping. Gun Run = The run to the gun, mostly used in gless where you have to go around the map to get both dj and the gun. XP Zones = A term that refers to a zone on the map which adds to your XP (gone more into detail later on in the guide)
[big] What are some basic strats? [/big] Coin grinding: In coin grinding, it is not efficient to go around the whole map everytime. You are wasting tons of time this way. Instead, we find the place with the most coins that is the closest, go there, and as soon as we have gotten the coins we press the escape buttons to kill ourselves. This way, we can use the place with the most coins as many times as we want.
Example of Coin Grinding in Glitchless
https://gyazo.com/4330582312d6cc45f646e8727c6cc572
Example of Coin Grinding in Any%
https://gyazo.com/9d8d95b5890c52ee4525286bb72d5e32
Order of upgrades: The order in which you get the upgrades is one of the most vital things in the run and varies from cat to cat and even person to person. You want to make sure to get the upgrades that give you the most money/time that you can get quickly. You don’t want to start out maxing your time limit stat right at the beginning of the run, because that will not help get more coins. It would be helpful to get multiplier or speed, which help get more coins faster. However, you must take cost into consideration. Even though level 8 speed will improve coins/second, it is 400 coins. It is not worth it to spend so much time getting this costly upgrade. Also, you can’t try and buy everything at once. If you try to buy all the speed at once without touching multiplier, there will be cheap multiplier that will increase c/s without having to put much into it. Keeping these three things in mind will give you a good route, and a good run.
Boss: The boss is one of the only things that stays constant throughout different categories. There have been no boss manips found yet, so you’ll have to wait through the cycles before you can shoot him. However, when he is about to smack down on the ground for his invincibility phase, you can shoot him. You do not need to wait for him to touch the ground.
Boss Run: The boss run is when you go from spawn to the boss to finish off the run. In AG and 100%, a boss clip is used. In NMG, a route starting with floor clip is used. And in the gless cats, a normal route is taken with double jump to the left. The key for glitchless boss run is to get the least amount of upgrades and still make it with enough hp/ammo for the boss.
Glitchless Boss Run
[big] So, Spontaneous, what categories are there? [/big]
Any% No Major Glitches (NMG) In this cat, you can’t do major clips. The only one allowed is floor clip, done by holding the up arrow on start (which is still game changing). The main strat for this category involves floor clipping, and falling down the left side of the pit and suiciding immediately after hitting ground. Then, you go for a quick dj. As soon as you can, do the glitchless gun run strat. Then, switch to dj grinding.
Dj Grinding
https://gyazo.com/e0570d0a5cde3693beba3f9bed632d45
All Glitches (AG) This category hosts all the clips and warps. In this category, we do similar coin grinding but get dj by doing an immediate spike clip when we have 2 speed and one jump. Right after that, we do a robot clip followed by a elevator clip on the left wall. Do boss clip, suicide right after, then get 6 speed 4 jump. Go get gun and touch the floor in that room and now you have dj/gun. Now it’s a matter of grinding, until you get everything and do another boss clip to finish off the run.
**Any% Glitchless ** No glitches, no clips, no warps. This one has no big strats, the real killer here is order of upgrades and timing in coin grinding. It’ll be best to have 7 jump 7 speed while grinding, and do one jump. Once you have 7 speed 7 jump 7 multiplier 16 time and 2 energy, get 835 coins and do not buy anything. Then, buy full jump and do gun run do get dj/gun. You should have enough money to buy all the gun things (5 power 2 ammo) and go right to boss.
Glitchless optimal grinding
https://gyazo.com/3bf14485a5819f96cbf0cabf2130a8e4
100% Get everything and kill the boss as fast as possible. There is both glitchless and ag for this, but they’re pretty much just taking the regular run but getting all upgrades. You want to get pretty much everything before the boss except maybe a few things because you get money on the boss run. It is legal to buy things after boss. One difference is that after boss clip in ag, you clip out of the boss room to get more coins while fighting the boss (which is the coolest glitch imo)
[big] Okay, but how does xp work? [/big] The map is divided into xp zones. In the map below (discovered by Eddie after datamining), the darker blue represent different xp zones. Whenever you step into one of these zones for the first time, your ‘xp’ counter goes up by one. The amount of xp you have is dependent of this number, but not exactly this number. It doesn’t go up linearly, so here’s the numbers. 1=5 2=20 3=45 4=80 5=125 6=180 7=245 8=320 9=405 10=500 11=605 12=720 13=845 14=980 15=1125
What this means is if you want 605 xp, which is required for double jump, you need to pass through 11 of these zones. Somehow 1295 XP was achieved by a runner but we have yet to figure out how this happened. https://gyazo.com/981f504721cfd37445faf06998dd4fcf
[big] Conclusion [/big]
Johnny Upgrade is a great speedgame with a welcoming community. Although it may seem complex at first, it becomes a smaller task with time. A huge thanks goes out to Eddie, for mining, help with strats, and creating the speedgame itself. And lastly, a thanks to this community for being so great. Again, please join the discord and look at other guides for more specifics on the routes.
See ya!
[small][small]someone needs to take back my gless categories for me[/small][/small]
