Basics of speed movement and approach to skips in this game

Hey there, my fellow runners! So, you are a new runner and you want to start running your favorite childhood games? Then you are in perfect place for that. The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer is a great game to start, because it is not hard at all...... well, except a few moments. But don't get discouraged! This game is a nice mix of action, humour, interesting levels and easy combat system which will let you jump into speedrunning of this game even if you never had background in that area before.

To start off, we have to get the most basic idea on how to move fast in this game. Most of the speed comes from doing two moves one after another. The moves are [jump] and [dodge forward]. It looks like this: jump->dodge->jump->dodge->jump->dodge etc.. You probably think it's boring, but trust me, it's not actually that bad once get into it (especially when you realize that dodging in this game isn't nearly as bad as dodging in other Heavy Iron Studios game, BUT anyway).

Just do these moves in that sequence continuously and you're good. It is important to point out that whenever it's possible, use Frozone to move because he is faster than Mr. Incredible. While using Frozone, you do the exact same sequence of moves, but this time you also add [Ice Glide] on top of that. After you jump as Frozone, do an [Ice Glide] and Frozone will travel further than normal jump distance. In order to do an ice glide, you should press [Punch] button right after Frozone jumps. It looks like this: jump->ice glide->dodge->jump->ice glide->dodge->jump->ice glide->dodge etc.. There is also a speedrunning technique to extend ice glide which is for advanced users. We will talk about that technique later when the time comes, but for now let's put it out of the way. But that's not all. When you do a [Jump] move, try not to push [Jump] button too hard because character will jump higher and as a result will fall to the ground slower. Just tap [Jump] button slightly.

If you have to dodge diagonally, say forward-right, then you press both buttons [dodge forward] and [dodge right] simultaneously. For respective assigned keybinds, look up the game's settings. So, as you can see even such simple thing as basics of this game are not that boring, ey? Now, let's continue.

With basics aside we can talk about the best part of speedrunning this game. And of course I am talking about skips. For a game as linear as The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer it has suprisingly good amount of skips. Not everything can be considered a skip in this game even if it saves over one minute of time. For such instances I will use a term "trick".

For reference, 'skip' is something that developers obviously tried their best to prevent you from doing (bypassing invisible walls etc.). Whereas 'trick' is something that developers themselves didn't even think about prevent you from doing (jump around spinning spike tower instead of freezing it like you are intended to do).

But let's focus on skips first. There are 17 skips in total. Although we won't be using some of them and therefore they won't be mentioned here. Here is a list of skips available for you to use in your runs (Note: only useful skips! There are also some useless skips from speedrunning perspective that won't be brought up):
-Undeminer Threat-
1. Fire Tubes Skip.
2. Truck Skip.
-Blizzard Backdoor-
3. Bridge Skip.
4. Elevator Cage Skip.
-Magnomizer-
5. Laser Cage Skip.
6. Upwarp Skip.
-Giant Robot Factory-
7. Downwarp Skip.
8. Conveyor Belt Skip.
-Underwater Station-
9. HammerBot Overhead Skip.
-The Corrupterator-
10. Two Gas Pipes Skip.

To get a truly good idea on how to do all of these skips, you are obviously encouraged to watch already existing runs of the game. Below I will only talk about positioning of character and the correct steps of actions.

Firetubes Skip - when you enter the cave, you will see a long tunnel before section with fire tubes. The key here is not to trigger in-game event that will activate fire tubes too quickly. You have to stand near the trigger, but not too close. Personally, I use a pile of rocks lying nearby on the right side of tunnel as point of reference. After you stand near that pile of rocks, you do a [Dodge Forward] move, then [Ice Glide], then diagonal dodge forward-right, then a very short ice glide and then dodge forward again. After that you just keep doing an ordinary ice glide->dodge forward.

Truck Skip - literally few seconds after a Fire Tubes Skip, you will be met with another skip. For this one you can use either Mr. Incredible or Frozone, but of course it's better to use Frozone. I highly suggest you avoid robot by going to the right side, because only this positioning seems to work very well. If you go to the left side, then camera angle will change in a very uncomfortable way which will make it hard to do the skip. Also, I recommend you to position Frozone on the very edge of shadow that you will see on the ground. From there you are ready to do the skip. Ice glide right in-between two circles on the bottom part of the truck and the white container on top. When Frozone lands immediately jump over the truck. It's all about muscle memory. Another important thing, sometimes Mr. Incredible won't spawn on the other side. You need him to spawn there. In order to do so without time loss switch to Mr. Incredible and then back to Frozone while Frozone is still in mid-air or when he does a dodge move. Switching characters in mid-air is the most reliable way of making character spawn nearby immediately.

Bridge Skip - truly one of the most worthy skips in the whole game. Now it's time I teach you an Extended Ice Glide technique. You will see a huge gap between your current location and location you want to go. Normally you have to activate the bridge by doing requiered activities on the right side and on the left side. But we will simply skip that huge gap with an ice glide technique. Position Frozone on the very edge of the ground in front of Frozone. Make sure you also tell Mr. Incredible to say still right before you are about to position Frozone so he won't obscure your vision. If you are unsure of being capable of pulling that skip off, you can get an extra distance. To get an extra distance before doing that skip, you can jump on the edge itself. You have to jump starting from neutral position. In other words, press [Jump] button first and only then move Frozone forward. That way Frozone will land closer to the deep. After that, jump forward until you feel that you reached enough additional distance, but not too much or else Frozone's momentum will be lost and he won't be able to ice glide enough distance. Once Frozone jumped far enough immediately stop pressing [Move Forward] button and just spam [Move Right] and [Move Left] buttons one after another while still holding [Jump] and [Punch] buttons. Frozone's movement can be controlled in that state. Make sure you press right and left with equal amount of time.

Elevator Cage Skip - once you are at the very end of the level when a giant elevator reached its destination, you have to jump on two balls that generate energy on the right side. Wait till lasers disappear. Jump on the two balls. Once landed, find a spot on the upper ball as a reference point. Frozone should face that spot, then jump from neutral position and do an ice glide. There honestly not much can be done. Play around with it. Feel the skip. Once Frozone is on top of the wall, he will have to bypass invisible wall. You will have to make him run off the edge a bit and at the right time bypass invisible wall that will try to push him away. This skip is very hard and usually avoided during real runs. The hardest part is really just to bypass invisible wall because it is very wide.

Laser Cage Skip - right before coming close to second laser wall, jump on the data-server-like thing, then jump on the laser generator, do a forward dodge move and near the end of it switch to Mr. Incredible.

Upwarp Skip - there are two ways of doing this skip. My way is easier due to camera angle and it is also faster. Stand near the edge, position Frozone right before the last circle that you see on the ground, but don't quite stand on the circle itself. Be on the left side of that circle. From there jump from neutral position on the sharp edge of the ground and when Frozone seemingly stands in mid-air, from there do a jump forward and ice glide.

Downwarp Skip - when platform falls, go on the back of it. Position Frozone right in-between different marks on the ground. From there just jump on the right side far enough. You have to bypass invisible wall. Then turn forward and start ice gliding til you reach the inner section of outside path of the ground. The rest is mostly easy, jump around giant spinning wheels. Be careful not to jump on them or jump too far away. Once you see the end of the path, jump on the edge that you see in front of you and from there do an ice glide forward. This skip is also rarely used in real runs because it's not particularly easy and it also saves only six seconds usually.

Conveyor Belt Skip - once you reach your first conveyor mechanism, wait until platform behind it lowers down. Once it starts going up, immediately jump behind invisible wall and ice glide around it to land on the top of the wall. Once platform lowers down, jump on it then just keep running until it goes up again and right before it reaches its maximum height, jump off at the closest conveyor belt that you see around. Be quick and don't stay on the platform because when it reaches maximum height, character gets "killed".

HammerBot Overhead Skip - after platform reaches tell Mr. Incredible to stay still and move to the trigger that activates HammerBot event. Before you reach it, make sure that Frozone hits the light of third projector. That way lasers will be activated which is needed to get rid of those annoying drill robots. Destroy the shield that protects the trigger, jump on the edge of material lying nearby on the ground. From there switch to Mr. Incredible, tell Frozone to stay still and activate the trigger. After that immediately switch to Frozone, jump on the trigger and from there ice glide towards HammerBot. Once Frozone stands on it, jump forward.

Two Gas Pipes Skip - when you reach third bridge, tell Frozone to stay still and as Mr. Incredible do a Incredi-slam to get rid of robots. Then switch to Frozone and run forward till he stands in-between marks on the floor and immediately ice glide towards center of the bridge, then immediately dodge forward. Do the same thing on the next bridge pretty much.

Information might be added later if necessary.

Debug Mode Guide (Console Only)

Debug Mode is a hidden ability only able to be accessed by modifying the in2.ini file, and as such is not run legal, but is good for practicing. To activate Debug Mode, first you need to extract your copy of the game. If you're running off Dolphin emulator, you can use Dolphin to extract all data from the GameCube ISO and then run it off using the .dol file. PS2/Xbox require a bit more work but you can use Google for all that. Once you have your copy extracted, put this command in the in2.ini file.

AllowMasterCheats = 1

For some reason, the developers actually removed the AllowMasterCheats command in the PC version, which means Debug Mode will not work.

As of right now, Debug Mode only lets you see what level you're playing in, your coordinates, the memory available, and access to a noclip mode. Here are the controls listed for each respective console below.

Controls for Debug Mode (GCN):
Activating: Pressing the L and R triggers and the Z button at the same time
Fly Up: Y
Fly Down: X
Fly Faster: L or R Trigger

Controls for Debug Mode (PS2):
Activating: Select
Fly Up: Triangle
Fly Down: Square
Fly Faster: L1 or R1

Controls for Debug Mode (Xbox):
Activating: Select
Fly Up: Y
Fly Down: X
Fly Faster: L or R Trigger

Upgrading characters during speedruns - What do I upgrade and when? - Beginner's guide

So, if you are new here, then I strongly suggest that you read the guide called "Basics of speed movement and approach to skips in this game" first as it covers the basics of speedruns including skips.

Now, here is where a truly tricky part lies in speedruns of The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer. During speedruns, there will be many situations when you have to upgrade both Mr. Incredible and Frozone. It is needed so you can complete the game faster since the more powerful your characters become the easier it is to destroy robots, freeze them, having more supermoves etc.. It is not a problem in New Game+ variant of speedrun because it implies that both characters already have all upgrades. But in Any% variant, you might struggle to understand what is a better strategy overall. Which supermove you should upgrade first and when ideally you need it being upgraded.

Before I explain just a bit in-depth and why not everything is as hard as it seems, I will show you two completely different upgrading strategies. I will call them Old Strategy and New Strategy, but not because one of them is bad and another is great. In actuality, both of those strategies seem to be almost equal in speed. It's just Old Strategy is... well, old i.e. it was used originally, but since then I found a better one. And by "better" I mean "easier" since it is now relies more on efficiency through certain upgrades rather than being more technical in your movements to match basically the same speed when those upgrades weren't available (I'm talking about Old Strategy).

Both of these strategies were thought through by me, so now you don't have to worry about finding the most optimal way to upgrade characters.  Feel free to use either of them. I think New Strategy is as good as it could possibly be. Although if you want to find a more optimal way perhaps, then by all means do it. May be you will find the most perfect strategy for upgrades in speedruns. So, without any more talks, here are the strategies:

- Old Strategy
MR. INCREDIBLE | FROZONE
1. Supermove      | Supermove
2. Incredi-slam    | Freeze Ray
3. Incredi-slam    | Ice Punch
4. Power Punch   | Ice Punch
5. Power Punch   | Freeze Ray
6. Supermove      | Supermove

- New Strategy
MR. INCREDIBLE | FROZONE
1. Incredi-slam    | Freeze Ray
2. Incredi-slam    | Freeze Ray
3. Power Punch   | Ice Punch
4. Power Punch   | Ice Punch
5. Supermove      | Supermove
6. Supermove      | Supermove

As you can tell, both strategies are fairly different althouth not quiet. There is some resemblance. It is not obvious difference for a newcomer, so I will tell you in what way these strategies are different. Old Strategy heavily relies on supermoves. And therefore you have to be more technical in your approach of fighting robots. While New Strategy heavily relies on usage of more powerful moves such as Incredi-slam and Freeze Ray. So, it's easier to destroy separate robots, but you also will have to compromise with supermoves. It's always a compromise.

Now, you might ask something along the lines of "But what if I don't get an upgrade when I need it, what do I do?". Actually, upgrades are pretty well stacked up throughout the run. I virtually never struggled to have an update it time. And when I said "stacked up", I meant to say that upgrades become available literally in time when they are needed..... for the most part. Of course there are instances when you might not have earned enough points for an upgrade to appear. But it's not a big deal if you started doing runs just recently.

And remember, never upgrade mid-mission! Because if you do, you are going to lose time from upgrade screen animation. Upgrade screen is pretty slow. Upgrade your characters only at the end because that way you don't lose time on mission ending screen animation showing up. Because mission ending screen has to happen either way and you have to upgrade your characters either way. Make sure you are always aware with which character you ended the mission because you will start upgrading from him. So, for example, you ended mission while being in control of Mr. Incredible. After that, upgrade screen will appear and it wil have you start upgrading from Mr. Incredible's section. So, do it. Because you will lose time if you go to Frozone, upgrade him and then go back to Mr. Incredible and upgrade him. You would lose at least one second from doing that. And it might not seem as a lot of time loss, but trust me, for this game at this point in time, every second is important. I had runs where literally one second decided whether or not I'm going to have a World Record or not. For real.

Your next question could probably be "Why are there only six times you upgrade both characters and why do we never see other characters' abilities being upgraded?". Because at this point in the run, there will be no need for other characters' abilities. In fact, there is no need for such abilities as Mr Incredible's Throw or Frozone's Ice Glide because these are useless from offense perspective during the runs. Upgraded Throw is useful literally only during one place of the game (Note: I'm talking about a moment after you skip bridge in Blizzard Backdoor as Frozone. Then Mr. Incredible has to throw boulders at the giant door. Normal throw let's him destroy the door in three shots, while upgraded Throw, four shots.) and it saves you only few seconds. Overall, you will always lose more time if you upgrade Throw instead of Incredi-slam. Every time. Remember that. As for upgrading of Frozone's Ice Glide, it's just useless. As I said before, but you have to understand that the only thing it gives you, is ability for Frozone to Ice Glide on top of his robots indefinitely! Basically forever.

Now, to each strategy there are neat little elements that play out into a bigger picture. I'm talking about when to do a supermove for example. You have to memorize what part of each level will have a supermove available, so you could use it earlier. That plays out into a bigger, overall strategy respectively. Your ability to think ahead of what you might need in order to save time and when. It's like a chess essentially.

There are so many questions: what move should you do here; what if you upgrade that ability; and if you upgrade that ability then how it will help you save time and where in the level it could save you time; and if you use this upgrade then where do you lose time then and how could you save it; perhaps you could save the time by upgrading something else instead; but if you upgrade that ability instead, then obviously you will lose time in some other place of the level and that's just on the surface, don't forget the overall picture, remember; but now you notice that you might save some seconds by upgrading something else in specific place of the level you skipped and now you have to rethink everything and change your strategy; but you now have to change approach to certain upgrades and adjust your actions accordingly. And now you understand there is way more to it, isn't it.

So many questions. You can't save all possible time in all places of the entire run, no matter what variant you run specifically. Because remember what I told you earlier? It is always a compromise! Think! You have to compromise certain parts of the level in order to save time in some other place. For small details like these, just watch already existing runs and most importantly try to understand why certain upgrades and certain actions happen when they happen. And may be you will even find a better tactic to something. Your goal is to understand why things in the run happen when they happen and how it affects any specific places of each level and the overall game and if some thing can be improved.

More information will be added if needed.

Name	Autor
Basics of speed movement and approach to skips in this game	GameplayDrive 5 years ago
Debug Mode Guide (Console Only)	HoonGoons 5 years ago
Upgrading characters during speedruns - What do I upgrade and when? - Beginner's guide	GameplayDrive 5 years ago