[Full Game Tutorials] START HERE

So you want to learn to speedrun SSSV? First of all, welcome! Thanks for giving this wonderful game a shot. To make learning this game easier, a list of individual level (IL) guides are listed in the guides section. These IL guides describe the routes for each level in the game and give some helpful comments on how to do certain difficult parts well. Hopefully you find them useful. Outside of the IL guides, you can ask questions on the forums, on the SSSV discord (ask for an invite), or on peoples' streams. We're not the most active community, so forgive us if we don't get back to you quickly.

In addition to the IL guides, Mcill and Crackerbean have both made full game tutorial videos in the past (Mcill's is even on the list of guides), but these are old and outdated. It's a lot of work to make a quality full-game guide that stays up to date, which is part of the reason the IL guide format is being used here.

One thing to note is that emulator runs are placed in their own category on the leaderboard. Emulators have distinct advantages over the N64 such as substantially reducing lag.

Any%- See IL's
99%- Guide available soon™
Silver Evo- Outdated 2018 guide available, update soon™

2026 Note: All IL's guides are from 2022. I would say 95% of the text in the guide is still optimal speed tech. For the remaining 5%, I did go back in the guides and add notes and references where there is better tech available but I lack the expertise to create in-depth guides like the authors did.

Regarding the updates, I simply put the IL video alongside the C_Sharp WR from 2025 and wrote any differences I found into the IL guides. If there are any tricks not in C's WR or there have been any new strats discovered since his WR, they are NOT accounted for in the IL guides.

For prospective Any% runners, consider either or both options

1. Use the IL guides and additionally refer to a modern run (such as C_Sharp or MaiBlu's PB's) and copy them

2. Join the SSSV speedrun discord (link at the top of this page) and ask any question you'd like! 

[HOW] to learn the game

Friends, speedrunning is a hard hobby and the people who are at the top of their game have dedicated years to getting that good. You can catch up, but just because I can get a sub 1:10 run doesn't mean you should expect a sub 1:10 run. Expect your first run to be 2 hours long and many runs from there to be ~1:45. Don't try to beat me, try to beat yourself.

With that in mind, it is far more important to learn smart and run smart than it is to learn the "best" strats and the "fastest" strats. Don't jump into the deep end before you know how to swim. In the case of speedrunning, trying to execute these so-called "fastest" strats will often result in either failure of the strat or overly cautious and careful gameplay. In either case, it will be slower than the easy strats. If you fail, you might die and lose minutes, or maybe you have to spend 15 seconds getting back into position. If you are overly cautious you might spend 10 extra seconds trying to "set up" a strat that only saves 5 seconds to begin with, causing the strat to be 5 seconds SLOWER than the easy strat.

By far the most important thing for you is to play consistently and purposefully without hesitation.

Play consistently. If you can't execute a trick with a high success rate, maybe just don't use it.

Play purposefully. Have a plan going into the run and don't deviate from it. Trying new things or thinking you'll figure it out when you get there is a recipe for disaster.

Play without hesitation. You NEED to know your plan instinctively down to the detail. A lot of this is simple details like knowing the layout of a level and how to get to the first objective from the start of the level, or how to get from the last objective to the end of the level. If you finish a task (like pushing a switch) and then have to think even for 1 second about where to go next OR how to get there, you are hesitating.

After you are consistent and after you remove hesitation from your runs, THEN learn something new. after you have learned the new thing, implement it into your plan. After its in your plan, do runs until you have removed your hesitation. Learn one thing at a time, slowly implementing each one into your plan.

The importance of having a plan, being consistent with it, and avoiding hesitation can be exemplified by the run below. In this run I didn't execute any strats that aren't "necessary" and I still managed to get a 1:18. Sure I played many fights at a high level, but even if you play at a lower level, you should be able to get a 1:25 without "unnecessary" strats. If you do not have a 1:25, I recommend not trying to learn new strats, maybe even remove some strats from your route. Instead, remove the hesitation from your gameplay and increase the consistency of your gameplay.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/876399884

This video covers what strats are critical to learn. If you learn nothing except these strats, you're basically good to go:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/876378603

[IL] 1 Europe 01 - Smashing Start

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Any%
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Route:
1) Kill the sheep (do NOT become the sheep)
Don't miss any bites, it takes 6 total to kill
Optimal- Jump/bite¹ to push the sheep closer to the teleporter before grabbing the energy
2) Get the energy, run to the teleporter before "you got the energy" text appears
3) Stand on the teleport until "finish the mission first" text appears
4) Run back to the sheep, swap into it before "finish the mission first" text disappears
5) Go to the teleporter

DarkAcChess' In-Depth Tutorial:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/256262906

----------------
Techniques
----------------
¹Jump/bite-
Jump towards the sheep and land near its back, bite as you land. Ensure you jump toward the sheep from a distance so your bite has forward momentum and it pushes the sheep farther. Don't spend too much time doing this. If the "push r to swap" text goes away before you grab the energy, you took too long.

Explanation:
This route seems kind of obscure for such a simple level, but it lets you sort of skip a cutscene, kind of. Basically, when the teleporter activates, a cutscene plays showing the teleporter. You cannot normally move during this cutscene, so watching the cutscene is slow. You CAN cutscene skip it to allow you to move during the cutscene, but if you walk onto the teleporter during the cutscene you get a double exit-animation, which is really slow. For some reason, completing the sheep objective while the "finish the mission first" text is still on screen allows you to move during the cutscene AND go on the teleporter without getting a double exit-animation. It works. Don't question it.



Validation as Current: March 2026

[IL] 1 Europe 02 - Have A Nice Day!

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Any%
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(Route difficulty), Options, Benchmark Time, Time Save From Last Route:
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(Base) *No Cutscene Skip*: ~1:25  
(Medium) *Cutscene Skip*: ~1:13 (-12s)  
(Medium/Optimal) *Cutscene Skip + Bridge Skip:* ~1:11 (-14s)
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.
-------------------------------------------
1) When the level begins, rotate the camera so that it looks behind you or to your right, staring straight ahead causes lag.  
2) Run towards the bridge while barking.  
3) Go ~80% across the bridge, then turn back and head toward the sheep by the trees in the corner near spawn. This causes the sheep on the center island to run toward the pen.  
4) Herd the sheep to the top of the hill by the sheep pen.  
5) Turn and head to the water to herd the last sheep up the hill.  
6) Herd all 4 sheep into the pen and hit the switch. Herding is easier if you stay farther away from the sheep.  
7) Head across the bridges and toward the mouse (see Bridge Skip¹ ). When you get to the mouse, make sure the dog is out of the way before you switch animals (this makes mouse movement easier and makes getting the cutscene skip easier).  
8) Get to the teleporter as fast as possible. Ideally you will get to the teleporter before the cutscene starts. For cutscene skip, most players hold Z while traveling.  

Cutscene Skip without Bridge Skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzFIOWqR7NU

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Techniques
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¹Bridge skip (-2s):  
Rather than going over the first bridge on your way to the mouse, you can run in a straight line from the sheep pen to the island. To jump the gap over the water, pause briefly near the water, then hold forward and jump at the same time. This trick can be difficult and doesn't really save that much time, so if you can't do it consistently, its not a big deal.  

Validation as Current: March 2026

[IL] 1 Europe 03 - Honeymoon Lagoon





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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route:
-------------------------------------------
(Base) Sheep Route: ~1:53  
(Expert) Mouse Route: ~1:25 (-28s)  
(Expert/Optimal) Mouse Route + Legend Cycle: ~1:13 (-12s)
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.
-------------------------------------------
Note  
-This level is entirely cycle-based because you must use the elevator to get to the teleporter. The elevator cycle starts when the level starts. Each elevator cycle is ~12 seconds.  
-While hitting the switches, using a tail attack helps...somehow. Watch DarkAcChess and be amazed⁴  
-Consider Cutscene Skip² (unused strat March 2026)  

1) Hit the switches for both the electric fence objective and the big machine objective. Start with one of the levers, then hit alternating floor switches and levers. However, you should not hit the last lever before hitting the last floor switch because it activates a cutscene and the switches deactivate. If you can't do the switches and levers fast enough (causing the floor switches to deactivate), a safe strat is to do all of one set, then all of the other set. After hitting the last level, hold Z to lock the camera behind you. This will give you control back faster after the cutscene ends. Continue holding Z at least until you fall toward the sheep.  
2) Head toward the sheep. The easy way is to fall into the water and take the elevator up. The hard way is to go around. If you choose to go around, you must take a running start when going up the hill with the platforms on it. Going around is a bit faster, but since the level is cycle based it might not matter. If you find yourself just barely missing a cycle using the elevator strats, try going around to save a couple seconds and make that cycle.  

----------------(Beginner) Sheep route  
3)Kill a sheep and swap into it. If you are set up right, do a Sheep Push¹ before swapping into the sheep.  
4)Head to the teleporter. Small amounts of time can be saved by reducing lag. Rotate the camera to face the wall while heading toward the water pit. Also, small amounts of time can be saved by jumping off the elevator as soon as possible while still being able to float to the exit.  

Sheep route video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_c8c5I9Fg

----------------(Expert) Mouse route  
3)Kill a sheep, swap into it, swap back into the mouse.
4)Head through the canyon and toward the lagoon. Fall into the lagoon and move toward the elevator(see Legend Cycle³).  
5)Perform the Leap(s) of Mouse to the teleporter (No guide currently available.)  

Mouse Route (No Legend Cycle):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-zZM3Nhex0

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Techniques
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¹Sheep Pushing:  
Using the mouses tail attack allows it to push larger animals (sheep) while moving at mouse-speed. I guess this should be called "mouse pushing" since you can push everything, not just sheep, but you only ever push sheep and rams so whatever.  

²Cutscene Skip:  
Control over your character can be recovered by switching between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts.  
A cutscene skip can be performed on this level when hitting the last lever. While it is not recommended for any% runs, it can theoretically be used to get a Legend Cycle elevator cycle and save 12 seconds, unless you're DarkAcChess, then you don't need to cutscene skip to get the Legend Cycle. The cutscene skip is frame perfect.  

³Legend Cycle:  
With absolutely perfect movement and potential utilization of the Cutscene Skip, you can just barley make a perfect elevator cycle that arrives as you get to it, saving 12 seconds. This is only possible using the mouse route and is incredibly difficult. see DarkAcChess' PB below.  This can also be observed in C_Sharp's March 2026 World Record as a 'consistent' champion strat.  

⁴AC's PB. See 1:50 for tail attack on switches, 2:32 for Legend Cycle:

IL Guide Validation as Current: March 2026
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/884461801?t=2m40s

[IL] 1 Europe 04 - The Battery Farm

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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route
-------------------------------------------
(Base) Kill the dog in the corner: ~1:54  
(Medium/Optimal) Ram on dog's back: ~1:38 (-16s)
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  
-------------------------------------------

**Medium/Optimal Route**  
-Head to the sheep pen and kill the ram. You MUST "Ram Push²" the ram in the right direction and swap into it once you reach the far end of the pen or you run out of poking energy.  
-Jump over the bridge gap and hit the switch. While heading to the bridge, you can reduce lag by having the camera face the wall. The bridge gap is hard to clear as the ram, but not crazy difficult.  
-Kill the dog (see "notes on killing the dog"). If optimal dog kill fails, revert to base/old route.  
-Grow the carrots and then jump onto the dogs back and swap into it.  
-Carry the ram to the bridge section and fall into the water over the bridge. While falling into the water you can switch into the ram and jump to the switch (slightly faster), or perform a Hitbox Extension¹.  
-Swap into the dog, turn off the fence, and beat the level.  

Optimal route video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQqEs8dJKCk

**Base Route**  
-Head to the sheep pen and kill the ram. If you can "Ram Push²" the ram in the right direction, do it, otherwise just switch to the ram ASAP.  
-If you need health, get the health in the pen.  
-Jump over the bridge gap and hit the switch. While heading to the bridge, you can reduce lag by having the camera face the wall. The bridge gap is hard to clear as the ram, but not crazy difficult.  
-Kill the dog (see "notes on killing the dog")  
-Go into the water and headbutt the switch to raise the second bridge (Hitbox Extension¹), then go back and play as the dog.  
-Grow the carrots, turn off the fence and beat the level.  

Base Route Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAtFoJeTSqM

**Notes on killing the dog**  
The dog moves in a figure 8 pattern around and through the barn. He also has some sort of limitations to where he can go. As a result you can "corner" him in what looks like an open area.  

If you had a perfect ram kill (following the optimal route), the dog will be just entering the barn, moving away from you. Run forward and aggro it, then chase it into the hay bales right near the gap where the crusher is. Headbutt it untilit runs away again, then chase it towards the carrots and finish it off.  

If you get a perfect ram kill and are not confident in your ability to do the optimal route, wait for the dog to get ~2/3 of the way through the barn before heading forward down the left side of the barn. As the dog moves around the corner it will see you, fire a missile and turn to run away from you. You can dodge the missiles by jumping over them with proper timing. Position yourself so that it runs straight toward the water. It will hit an invisible wall and turn to face you and shoot more missiles. You should have caught up to it, allowing you to headbutt it. Don't spam headbutts, just hit it methodically. Be careful not to miss headbutts too. The dog will turn and run away from you again. Position yourself so that it runs in an "up-left" direction, toward the second bridge. There, it will run into a second invisible wall and be "cornered". Catch up and kill it. Controlling the direction the dog moves is way easier the farther you are from it. If it goes out of control, back up a bit. Also, you don't do more damage by standing close to the dog, so don't get up in its face.  
If you had a halfway decent ram kill, the dog will be heading towards you from the left. You won't be able to get many headbutts in without cornering the dog, so chase it to the "corner" near the second bridge and kill it.  
If you had a terrible ram kill, the dog could be anywhere in its figure 8 cycle and you're on your own for figuring out what to do. Basically your goal is to kill the dog quickly, but also as close to the second bridge as possible.  

--------------
***Techniques***
--------------
**¹Hitbox Extension**  
Using an animal's melee attack extends its hitbox, even through walls, allowing you to hit switches that you weren't supposed to (in this case, using the ram to raise the second bridge).  

**²Ram Pushing**  
Using the mouse's tail attack, you can push larger, slower animals (like the ram) at mouse-speed. Like the sheep push, this should probably be called mouse pushing, but whatever.  

**Validated as Current: March 2026**  

[IL] 1 Europe 05 - The Engine Room

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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route  
(Base) No Leap of Fox: ~2:11  
(Hard) Leap of Fox: ~1:29 (-42s)  
(Harder/Optimal) Leap of Fox + Cutscene Skip: ~1:23 (-6s)
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  
-------------------------------------------
Note: Leap of fox can be an intimidating trick. The base route is recommended until you are comfortable with the trick.  

Optimal route:  
1)Head over to the scientist and tail-whip him to get the key card. You can boost twice before tail-whipping and once after to get out of the lava. You can move during the cutscene, so get out of the lava fast!  
2)Move back to the bear's area and up toward the hill. When it comes time to cutscene skip, jump out of the fox, then back into it to activate the cutscene skip. You can boost twice after getting the keycard, unless you picked up the card really fast, then only once. You should start the cutscene skip immediately after the second boost. If you want to use the second boost as a cue for the cutscene skip, then pause a bit before grabbing the keycard to let your energy refill.  

-Movement during the cutscene skip:  
-wait until the new animal cutscene is done and the camera has stabilized its position, then hold up-left for maybe 4 seconds, then switch to holding up. As the camera turns to the right (when it goes past the boulders and looks at the bears), rotate the stick so you are holding left.  
-You can still boost during the cutscene, do that whenever you have the energy to.  
-surprisingly, the cutscene skip doesn't save that much time (because it forces the fox NAC). If you can't do it well, then don't do it at all.  
3)Go through the boulders, boost through the bears, and do the Leap of Fox³.  

------------------------------------------
DarkAcChess' Optimal Route In-Depth Tutorial
------------------------------------------
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/271064693

(Base) No Leap of Fox:  
1)Move through the three computers, then toward the computer on the left.  
2)Pin the dog against the computer and kill it. If you can't pin the dog, do your best to kill it quickly  
3)Tail-whip the scientist and get the keycard  
4)Switch to the dog (don't go for a cutscene skip)  
5)Head into the cave area and hit the switch to activate the bridge.  
6)Leave the cave area and loop around to beat the level normally. If you have enough health, you can fall into the lava from the bridge switch instead of going back down the ramps.  

(Base) No Leap of Fox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmhYJLd335E

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Techniques
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¹Hitbox extension:  
Using a melee attack extends the animal's hitbox, allowing it to hit things it shouldn't be able to (in this case, the scientist)  

²Cutscene skipping:  
Control over your character during a cutscene can be regained by switching between animals or from Evo into an animal as the cutscene starts.  

³Leap of Fox:  
-Position yourself just to the left of the switch that activates the bridge.  
-Point your nose to the right side of the teleporter  
-Back up until you hit the wall  
-Hold forward and boost a split second after you start holding forward.  

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Old videos
--------------


Guide Validated as Current: March 2026   

Old fast route (different cutscene skip movement)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7MayddSPM

[IL] 1 Europe 06 - Fat Bear Mountain

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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route
-------------------------------------------
(Base) Dog Kill + FBM jump: ~1:46  
(Medium) + Cutscene skip: ~1:36 (-10s)  
(Medium) + Bear skip: ~1:31 (-5s)  
(Hard/Optimal) + FBM jump with mouse: ~1:30 (-1s)
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  
-------------------------------------------
The route is as follows:  
1) Kill the dog  
2) Cutscene skip opening the door, kill bear during cutscene  
3) Turn on the tap, cutscene skip into the dog OR bear skip (see below)  
4) Get to the exit using the FBM jump  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEBXsYy0dGY

Killing the dog:  
The dog is on a cycle. It is not possible to get an "early" cycle by going fast, so movement before getting to the dog is not so important. Get on the side hill, hold Z, and wait for the dog to move in front of you. Using a well timed sequence of boosting forward and tail-attacking, you can hit the dog. Two attacks kill the dog. After two attempts (successful or not, and sometimes after only one), the dog will start attacking you. Swapping out of the mouse and back into it will de-aggro the dog.  

Cutscene skip movement:  
Movement during the first cutscene is a combination of left and up. Movement here is not hard because you should be able to see yourself for most of the cutscene. Position yourself just outside of the cave facing into it. Shoot all your missiles, then do a fast recharge and shoot your missiles again. The bear takes two full energy bars of missiles to kill, so its faster to only fast recharge once, but play as Evo a bit longer so that your energy is fully recharged instead of 70% charged. You cannot jump out of the dog if you are inside the cave. Do not fully recharge if you are doing bear skip.  

For the second cutscene skip, just hold up for a few seconds. You can transition into up-right or right if you're feeling bold, but you risk falling back down to the start of the level.  

Bear skip:  
To turn on the tap, you must normally play as the bear. However, if you kill the bear while it is on the switch, then hit the switch as the dog. The game will activate the switch if the dead bear is on it when you touch it. This strat lets you skip the bear NAC, but does not let you cutscene skip. Cutscene skipping here is overrated, so bear skip is probably faster. (WR March 2026 uses Bear Skip)  

FBM jump:  
Position yourself a bit to the right of the corner pointing toward the angled slope and boost forward. If you bounce off the jump, you are too far to the left. If you don't go high enough, you are not hitting the jump head on and must adjust your angle.  

FBM jump with mouse:  
During the tap cutscene, go outside and switch to the mouse, then move in position to the FBM jump location. Very small time save for the difficulty.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDNRRGOy1ww
--------------
Techniques  
--------------
Cutscene skipping:  
Transitioning between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts allows you to retain control of your character during the cutscene. The first cutscene skip in this level is frame-perfect.  

Fast recharging:  
Evo recharges energy for his A and B abilities faster than some animals, so you can recharge faster by jumping out of an animal and then back into it.  

Validated as Current: March 2026  

[IL] 1 Europe 07 - Rocky Hard Place

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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route
-------------------------------------------
(Base) Easy Fence: ~1:21  
(Medium) Fast Fence ~1:19 (-2s)
-------------------------------------------

First you need to get into the spring ram by boosting over the electric fence. The easier way to do this is to boost off the ramp onto the block, then from there into the sheep pen. Sometimes your boost into the sheep pen gets stopped. This is more common when boosting in a straight line. The more consistent approach is to start your boost, move off the side of the block, then change your angle mid-air before the boost is completed.  
The harder, more optimal approach is "fast fence", where you boost from the slope going down to the sheep straight into the pen. This strat lets you use a boost earlier just to move fast.  
Kill and take control of the spring ram (spring sheep does not jump as high and can't do the grav clip), then head to the gravity switch. Do the grav clip, then head to the asteroid switch by jumping over the centre island. Hit the switch and head to the exit. Keep in mind the switch can also be hit with B rather than jumping on it like an ape.  
Easy Fence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-Mr3I2s8Y
Fast Fence (Which Mcill failed omegalul <3):  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGuowTHeU-o
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Techniques
---------------
Lag reduction:  
The electric fence causes a bunch of lag, don't look at it! The asteroids also cause lag. When moving to the exit, aim your camera so that it points toward the three islands at the corner of the level so you don't look at the asteroids  

Short jumping:  
Keeping the analog stick in neutral position when starting a jump causes the spring ram to do a short jump. Short jumping is used on the first two jumps after hitting the grav switch. It is also used 2 or 3 times while heading toward the asteroid switch after passing the central island. Finally, it is used on the last jump to get onto the teleporter.  

Grav clip:  
Spin attacking at the peak of your jump allows you to clip over the wall by the gravity switch. The side wall is easier to get over than the front wall. Position yourself pointing inward at the corner between the front and side walls, jump and spin attack. This trick is easier to perform while holding Z. If you can't do it, aim slightly to the right of the corner so you are jumping over the side wall.  

Valid as Current: March 2026

[IL] 1 Europe 08 - Stinky Sewers

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
Only route: ~2:08  

This level is pretty straightforward. Go to the barrels and push one into the water, perform updog, then back into the king rat area. Kill the king rat, be the king rat, and go to the exit.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vDG1L_5qYM

Killing the king rat:  
When killing the king rat, stay outside of the pit by the entrance. Aim a little to the right of the king rat and shoot missiles. You will need to quick recharge twice , but there are ideal times to do the quick recharging. There are two rats behind the toilet to the left that your missiles will start to target after a small amount of time. When the first rat pops out and your missiles curve away from the king rat, do a quick recharge both to refill your energy and to de-aggro the rat. Start shooting the king rat again until the second rat pops out and your missiles curve away again, then do a quick recharge to de-aggro it and finish the king rat off.  

Movement optimization:  
-Moving through the sewage river at normal speed is slow because the current pushes against you and because boosting while in the water doesn't do much. The fastest way through is to boost full speed into the river, then turn the camera to the left and spam missiles while holding down+boost at the right time to recoil yourself onto dry ground. A slower approach is to boost before the river so you are moving fast, but not too fast, when you hit the water. If you move too fast, you overshoot the barrel area and have to backtrack.  
-Hold Z and fire missiles while you back into the king rat's area. This causes the cutscene to start faster.  
---------------
Techniques
---------------
Quick recharging:  
Jumping out of an animal to play as Evo and then jumping back into the animal lets recharges your energy faster than normal and lets you start attacking faster.  

Updog:  
Float beside a barrel facing the direction you want to jump (toward the outlet thingy) with the barrel between you and the outlet thingy. When you reach the outlet thingy, boost towards it. The barrel will push you up and into the outlet. It works best when the barrel is at the bottom of its bobbing cycle.  

Updated as Current: March 2026  

[IL] 1 Europe 09 - Rat-o-matic

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Any%
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Route difficulty, options, benchmark, time save from last route
-------------------------------------------
Base: ~2:18  
(Medium) Ratomatic Skip: ~1:59 (-19s)  
(Expert/Optimal) Ratomatic Skip + Gate Skip: ~1:53 (-6s)  
-------------------------------------------
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.
-------------------------------------------

Head to the locked door and bump into the left side of it to aggro the mouse on the other side. Kill it with your gas attack and swap into it through the door. Hit the switch to activate the mouse sucker and move to the the target thing to get sucked up, perform the rat-o-matic skip as you get sucked up. Hop out of the rat-o-matic and head to the mouse hole. Clip through it and either perform gate skip (optimal) or beat the level normally (safe/beginner).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkRD6I2CpsQ

Killing the mouse:  
You need to move to the left side of the door to aggro the mouse. After that, it is best to move just to the left of the centre of the door. Doing this has a chance of getting the mouse stuck against the door, letting you kill it in one "cycle". If the mouse doesn't get stuck it will run around in circles, first running away, then running to you to attack. You can't hit the mouse when it runs away, so stop attacking to conserve energy. If you kill the mouse while it is running away, it might die too far away to swap into it. If this happens, you might still be able to jump into it by moving away from the door, jumping out of the king rat, and moving back to the door as Evo. Evo has a smaller hit box and so can get closer to the mouse than the king rat, possibly letting you jump into it. If that doesn't work, you have to reset the level.  

There are three cues you can use to help kill the mouse. The first, and probably best, is if you turn around and zoom the camera out after positioning yourself left-of-centre at the door. This lets you see into the mouse room and know where the mouse is. Only attack when the mouse is at the door or very close to it AND moving toward the door. The second cue is an audio cue for the mouse. You can hear its wheels squeaking when you aggro it, letting you know that the mouse has seen you and is moving toward you. You can also hear it use its tail attack, telling you that it is nearby and attacking. Third, you can hear it die so you know when to swap. The final cue is the blue bar on the bottom left that lets you know how much health it has and if you are damaging it or not.  

Movement toward the exit:   
There are a series of jumps right before the teleporter. Do not take the first small jump at full speed; it will screw up the second jump. You can boost again after you land the first jump. Move to the side before going over the lowered door because sometimes you don't jump all the way over it. The side is sloped up and you can walk over it if the jump fails.   

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Techniques
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Rat-o-matic skip:  
It is possible to glitch the game so that when you pop out of the pipe that brings you to the rat-o-matic, you get launched up instead of dropped down. By holding left or right (or, ideally, down) you can hop out of the rat-o-matic and skip it entirely. To do this, you need to be on the target to get sucked up by the pipe when the timer reaches zero, but off the target after you start getting sucked up. The easiest way to understand this is by moving over the target (and still be moving) when the timer hits zero. You will pause when the timer hits zero, but after you start getting sucked up, you start moving again. By the time you disappear into the pipe, you will be off of the target.  

The fastest way to do the trick is to go to the far end of the target and be moving toward the opening in the cage when the timer hits zero. Once the cutscene starts, continue holding down+boost. The momentum you have carries over to the jump out of the pipe and allows you to hold down+boost to get out of the rat-o-matic, then switch to right to move toward the door.  

The easiest and most consistent way to do this trick is to position yourself on the edge of the target and wait for the the timer to hit zero. When it does, hold boost and whatever direction is away from the target and keep holding that until you disappear in the pipe. This strat doesn't give you any momentum for jumping out of the rat-o-matic, so you can't do the optimal down+boost strat. Instead, hold right or down-right to get out of the machine.  

DO NOT PUSH B WHILE ON THE TARGET. The mouses attacking animation changes the mouse's ID. The game is looking for a "mouse" not an "attacking mouse". If you are attacking, the game assumes you are not on the target and will suck up a different mouse.  

If you miss the ratomatic skip and end up in the machine, go left around the electric fence, dodge the crusher, and then go out the rotating thingy that the pusher pushes you towards. This brings you back to the start of the level. From there, just head to the mouse hole.  

Mouse hole clip:  
Basically, just mash yourself between the ball thing and the left wall of the entrance, then bash your head against it until you get through, changing your angle and stuff as needed.  

Gate skip (Optimal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gA7cG61B70

Validated as Current: March 2026


[IL] 1 Europe 10 - Give-a-dog-a-bonus

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All Categories
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Route options and benchmark times:  
Only route: ~2:07 (1:30 in game time)  

Future comment: This clip excludes the 'Dog Fight' trick as seen far below that saves decent time.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnET-lsqJs

Just do what Dan says. It's best to learn the range of your attack and to recognize if you are actually hitting your target or not. Pay attention to if the enemy is flashing and if the blue bar on the bottom left shows you damaging the enemy. Wasting energy isn't so bad until you run out of it. It recharges very slowly and you cant do quick recharging on this level.  

After the ring section, 5 dogs spawn. After you kill 4 dogs, 3 foxes spawn. After you kill 1 fox, 3 more dogs spawn. You must kill 5 dogs and 2 foxes, 7 dogs and 1 fox, or 4 dogs and 3 foxes to spawn the trophy.  

After the foxes spawn, the battery charger goes online. The battery charger is a real thing that actually heals you. It is the red trench on the far right of where you start the level. If you are dying on this level often, find the battery charger and know where it is, then camp it while you kill things.  

You are invincible after the camera shows the trophy, but not before, so don't be careless even after killing enough animals!  

This level has significant amounts of lag. You can't really control it except at the end after you grab the trophy. Fly to a corner of the level and stay there. We're not sure, but it seems like that's the best spot to be to minimize lag.  

Ring section:  
Movement while boosting is a little strange and takes some getting used to. Other than that, the only thing to mention is the "Soap boost". After finishing the counter-clockwise loop (the first one) and getting the ring just to the right of where you started, do a reversal and move upward and a bit right to get the boost. Once boosting, there are two strats. The first is to move downward straight toward the next ring, hopefully flying through it. The second is to continue on your current trajectory while moving downward, then ricocheting off the wall and turning right. This should put you right where the ring is.   
When flying through the last ring, push B to spin around while the dogs are spawning. This sets up for the dog fight.  

Dog fight:
Turn to the right while also moving downward so that you bump into the wall just under the start point. The 5 dogs will be stuck on the other side of the wall and you can shoot them through the wall. Kill 4 of them to spawn the foxes.  

If the dogs don't get stuck on the wall, you'll have to fight them normally. In that case, there are two strategies for killing the dogs. Both involve flying toward whichever dog you think will fly toward you the fastest. When you get in range, start attacking it. The first strat involves attacking the dog and flying under/over it, then reversing and attacking it from behind. The seconds strat involves colliding head on with the dog and continuing to attack it while following its movement as it turns away from you.  

See dog fight in action at timestamp 13:47.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

Fox fight:
Immediately after the foxes spawn, push B to turn around and then bump into the far wall before pushing B to turn around again. Stay low on the ground and shoot the fox on the right as it approaches. After it flies past, push B to turn around and then fly toward the two foxes caught on the wall and shoot them dead. If your movement is right, the fox missiles will hit themselves and help kill them faster.  

After killing the fox, fly upward and turn around to try and hit the booster orb to get to the trophy faster.  

If you fail and only manage to kill one fox, it's usually better to kill dogs instead of trying to kill more foxes. If an opportunity to kill a fox presents itself, then go for it. Otherwise, just kill the dogs.  

Updated (March 2026) Comment: While updating this guide, I have noted this IL to be the most significant time save so far between Mcills old run and C's current WR. Both the dog fight and fox fight show massive time saves so I recommend any competitive runner to pay special attention to C's routing and execution in the video and timestamp embedded above.  

Note on the ending cutscene: you start moving again after the camera returns to its position behind you. This return can be sped up by hold Z during the cutscene and releasing it again only after you start moving.  

Validated as Current: March 2026  

[IL] 2 Arctic 01 - Snow Joke

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
Only route: ~1:01  

1) Get into the penguin and walk off the cliff  
2) Kill the husky at the bottom and swap into it  
3) Run into the pit and turn on the snow blower  
4) Head to the big computer thing and turn it on  
5) Go to the invisible platform and hop off it when its over the teleporter  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDSTR5URShs

Movement as the husky:  
The husky moves faster when using his bite attack, but you run out of energy to use this attack quickly. However, the faster movement lasts a bit longer after you let go of B. This means you can have faster movement almost indefinitely if you tap B continuously while moving.  
It's also faster to jump around the corner to the snow blower switch; it prevents you from sliding due to ice physics.  

Notes:  
-The large snowball at the start of the level causes lag. Rotate the camera so you don't see it.  
-You will take fall damage when walking off the cliff. Normally this isn't a problem, but you might also take fall damage when falling to the teleporter, which would kill you. To prevent the fall damage off the cliff, hold A briefly toward the bottom of the fall to bust out the parachute without slowing you down too much.  
-Use Z to help aim your snowballs when killing the husky.  
-The invisible platform becomes visible when you turn the lights off in the level, which can be helpful for practicing if necessary.  
-Hold Z while on the platform and continue holding Z during the level-exit jingle. This puts the camera in a good position to land on the exit and helps reduce lag.  

Validated as Current: March 2026

[IL] 2 Arctic 02 - Ice 'n' Easy Does It

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
Only route: ~1:55

1) Kill and control the rabbit
2) Kill and control the heli-rabbit
3) Cliff clip, collect heads, exit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fInKeSqgIbU

Movement as the husky:
The husky runs faster when it uses its bite attack. You have plenty of energy to run and kill a rabbit, so no need to use the "tap B" technique.

Killing the rabbit:
Attacking the closest rabbit and chasing it toward the cliff is probably fastest, but killing a different rabbit might be good if the rabbits move in a weird way. Generally the rabbits will jump away from you 3 times, then turn to use their attacks. Bite your target and follow it until it attacks. When it attacks, stand still while biting it so you don't push it around and start missing your attack. No need to dodge its attack.

Killing the heli-rabbit:
It takes two ground-pounds to kill the heli-rabbit. After your first ground-pound, let go of B and then hold it again. You will automatically ground-pound again when you have enough energy. You can hit the first attack as long as you are on the ground on the other side of the igloo, even if you aren't in swapping range. This means you can ground-pound, short hop closer while your energy recharges, then ground-pound again. If you stand on top of the ice block, you can spam the R button until you swap into the rabbit, but it is delayed because you have to fall a bit first. If you are on the ground beside the rabbit, you can't spam R, but can swap faster with proper timing. The rabbit dies after the 6th shockwave from the groundpound. Swapping speed doesn't matter that much though.

Movement as the heli-rabbit:
How high the heli-rabbit flies is based partly on how long you spend accelerating while close to the ground. The longer you spend close to the ground, the higher you go. This is used to fly over the wall after collecting the first head by flying low up the slope until reaching its peak. It is also used for the cliff clip and to help control movement.

When flying over the walrus area to reach the second and third heads, let go of A briefly before you reach the opening in the wall. This adjusts your height properly so that you don't bonk into the little bump at the opening.

---------------
Techniques
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Short hopping:
Jumping while the analog stick is in the neutral position causes the rabbit to jump a shorter height. Use this technique to make small adjustments in your position.

Cliff clip:
Using the heli-rabbit, you can fly onto the cliff that is supposed to be only reachable by a walrus. There are 3 ways to do this: "air half-pipe", "bonking", and "the backup". Air half-pipe is the fastest, bonking is the old way to do it, and the backup is the fastest way to do it if you missed your first attempt.

The air half-pipe makes use of the ability to gain more height by flying close to the ground (see movement as the heli-rabbit). The layout of the approach to the cliff is like a half-pipe, hence the name. Fly low to the ground and accelerate upward following the curve of the ground, then run over the cliff. Sometimes you have to slow down a bit to make sure you hit the cliff at the height of your jump.

The bonking strat involves bonking into the jump right before the water, then holding A and flying toward the cliff. It is slightly slower than the air half-pipe because you bonk instead of flying smoothly.

The backup strat is to land in the water at the bottom of the cliff and flying up from there. You must accelerate up from the water or from low in the air to get extra height (see movement as the heli-rabbit). When you reach your maximum height hold forward to get on the cliff. In addition to starting your flight from low down, you also must be the correct distance away from the cliff. If you are too close, you don't fly as high. If you are too far, you won't be able to move far enough to make it over the cliff before falling. Play around with this strat to get a feel for where you're supposed to be. It is very important because it is the fastest backup strat by a lot.

It probably doesn't matter where on the cliff you aim. The closer parts are higher up and the lower parts are farther away. That said, we usually aim for the same spot every time, so maybe it matters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWti9FQfQHk

[IL] 2 Arctic 03 - Penguin Playpen

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
babby's first seagull kill: ~1:55
best: ~1:39
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

Kill the seagull, then use it to carry the penguin over to the statue, supersliding along the way. Buttstomp the penguin near the statue. Drop the penguin on a button, grab the other penguin and put it on another button, use the seagull corpse for a third button, and hit the fourth button as Evo.

Note: This video does NOT show the penguin getting killed. See below this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHvuSQ_x4Do

See Time Stamp 18:18 for penguin Butt-Stomp and emplacement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

Killing the seagull:
This is probably one of the hardest 100% necessary trick in the run. The seagull kill skips the entire level, saving probably 3 minutes. Hold Z to help aim, slide down the slope near the edge close to the seagull, then tap A and B pretty much at the same time. Aiming slightly to the right of the seagull seems to work best. When you run out of energy, are too far away from the seagull, or are too close to the bottom of the slope, let go of Z and jump back up the cliff (start by holding down-right, then change directions as necessary). The fastest kills involve turning back around while still on the slope, but for your first kills it might be easiest to climb all the way up the slope for a full reset on your position.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4StZEnaysRs

Movement as the seagull:
The movement is pretty straightforward, but you want to superslide only in the area with the two penguins that say "I love you". Superslide toward the slope, but let go of A as you reach it so that you accelerate down the slope instead of starting to fly.

Buttstomping the penguin:
This buttstomp is a little strange because it only works if you are holding the first penguin and if you land on it from high enough up. Don't try anything fancy, just fly over it and land on it from a reasonable height.

Hitting the buttons:
The buttons are intended to be hit by corpses that are not the one you were just playing as. As a result, only the buttons you activate with the dead penguin are intended and easy. When you jump out of the seagull to hit the third button, the game will push it off the button. Put the seagull on the edge of the button farthest from the statue such that the button is still activated. When you jump out, the seagull will be pushed off the button, but it will land on the slope and slide back on the button. The button will not activate until the seagull is off screen. When the seagull goes off screen, it will hit the button and be pushed off again. Keep the seagull on screen until you reach the last button as Evo, then rotate the camera to put the seagull off screen.

---------------
Techniques
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Super Sliding:
Floating down as the seagull, start flying again when you are near the ground. You start accelerating upwards, but are still moving downwards at this point. If you hit the ground while flapping and accelerating up, you start to superslide. Hold A to continue flapping your wings and continue the slide.  

**Major Note: After completion of this level, C_Sharp chooses to switch to the jungle levels rather than proceed with the arctic levels.**  

[IL] 2 Arctic 04 - Pinball Blizzard

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
no setup for king penguin fight: ~3:08
with setup for king penguin fight: ~2:55

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

Kill the king penguin and control it, then collect the note on the nearby middle pillar. Fall back down and walk toward the centre of the level. When you climb back up the snow bank where the king penguin started, start flying. This lets you get onto the plateau at the centre of the level. Collect the note on the lower pillar and then head toward the final note. Collect it, play the piano, and then fly to the exit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul25IPc5ABs

Killing the king penguin:
You should chase the king penguin away from its minions. Pin it against a wall and blast it. An advanced technique is to try to chase it toward the first music note while still killing it quickly. Killing it fast is probably better than chasing it the right direction and killing it slowly though. You CAN quick recharge, but it is not necessary if you play well and its very slow because you activate the new animal cutscene for the ski husky, which is normally never seen in a run and so loses about 5 seconds.

The piano:
There are 6 patterns: the climb, the unnamed tune, el classico, the fake climb, up and down, and satan's march. They are listed in order from probably the fastest to probably the slowest. This doesn't matter but is fun information. You are not allowed to play the piano fast. If you hit one note too quickly after hitting the previous one, it wont register. If you jump from one note to another, that should be enough delay for it to count. The piano is also weird to land on, especially the black keys. Try not to fall too quickly onto them to avoid weird bounces.

[IL] 2 Arctic 05 - Hoppa Choppa

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
kill turrets on way out, kill huskies on way back: 2:31  
proper bomb energy management: 2:17  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  

Starting as the penguin, you must climb to the peak of the nearby slope and parachute down to the king penguin. Using the king penguin, clip over the wall by flying as high as possible after reaching the peak of the slope. The wall to clip over is the left one and the spot to clip over it is a bit to the left of the dark vertical line that is a bit to the left of the peak. You will land on or near a heli-rabbit. Butt-stomp the heli-rabbit 7 times to kill it, then swap into it. Fly back through the level, bombing turrets and huskies on the way, then fly back and finish the job. Then head to the exit after killing all of the turrets and huskies. You can try to fast fall to the exit if you are feeling up to an "advanced" technique (its slightly faster, but can lose a bunch of time depending on how you screw it up)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlIfo9s0R38

Combat strategy:
You need to kill all of the turrets and all of the huskies. This takes more bombs than you have energy to bomb with, but fast-recharging is a very slow option in this case. Don't go from one target to another killing them as you go. Instead, just fly past each target and drop a few bombs on them as you go by. This strategy prevents you from draining all of your energy on one target and lets you recharge between targets while still travelling through the stage quickly. Also, the huskies will move around and attack you after you bomb them, making them harder to kill. If you fly past them, they de-aggro and you can hit them easier the second time around. Once you reach the end, you can do the same on the way back except this time you need to make sure the targets die. The two exceptions are the final husky and the turret closest to it. The turret is in an awkward spot and so it is best to kill it once so that you don't have to navigate there again (note, C_Sharp in 2026 goes against this and partial bombs the last turret but still full kills the last turret). The husky is just the last target and so you need to kill it while turning around; you don't get two fly-bys.  

The best way to kill the final husky, since you can't de-aggro him, is to fly at him from high up so that he doesn't see you until late. However, you also want to be falling toward him. It is much easier to hit huskies when you are low down.  

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Techniques
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Fast falling:  
Sliding off of an edge as a flying animal causes you to fall faster. Flying animals have two states when moving downward in the air I guess: "landing" and "falling". When you fly up and then stop flying, you "land", which is a slow downward movement. When you walk off an edge, you "fall", which is a fast downward movement. All of the birds can fast fall by walking off an edge, but they correct themselves to a "landing" state quickly after. The heli-rabbit does not correct the "falling" state, but cannot move on the ground. Therefore, to fast fall as the heli-rabbit, you have to land with forward momentum near an edge so that as you slide to a stop, you fall off the edge.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsm-bQYSzg8

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DarkAcChess' In-Depth Tutorial
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https://www.twitch.tv/videos/260418963

[IL] 2 Arctic 06 - Something Fishy

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
normal: ~3:03  
analog stick reset: ~2:48  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

Swim forward a bit, then cut to the right and jump over the wall. Move down toward the fish in the right corner of the area you are in. Free the fish, then head out of this area by moving up and toward the opposite side of where you came in. Wrap around the centre of the level until you reach the door to the middle area. Jump over it, head to the ramp, and perform the cod escape. Hit the switch at the top and head back into the fish. Jump back over the wall and cut to your left. Head forward and jump into the little water cave thing. Free the fish in there and head back out and to the right. Free the fish in the far right area, then head toward the exit. Free the fish in the exit area and head to the teleporter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZjiLpdVcs

Moving as the cod:
Tapping A as fast as possible makes the Cod swim quickly. Never hold A, always tap. The fish jumps higher if it is swimming upward while jumping. When you approach the door to the middle area, approach it from underwater while swimming up to the surface such that you can jump right when you reach the surface and make it over the door. Finally, the fish bounces off walls, which can be annoying but we believe this is the fastest way to round the hairpin turn (in both directions) in the water cave thing where the second fish is.

Jumping over the wall:
The wall can be hard to jump over if you don't do a setup. The fish actually jumps different heights depending on how you move. If you stay at the surface and push B, it won't jump very high. You get more height if you start off fully submerged, then move upward toward the surface and jump as you reach the surface. You can push B again in midair to boost if you need a little extra height/distance. If you are having trouble, you can try some controller shenanigans to help you out (see controller shenanigans section)

Cod escape:
This is basically getting out of the cod. You cannot jump out of animals while you are in the water, so you have to be on land. However, you have to be standing still to jump out of an animal and fish are programmed to slide around when on the land. This means you usually can't jump out of the cod. To trick the game into letting you jump out, you need to be standing still on the land. The best way to do this is to swim directly onto the slope while spamming R. If you get (a little) lucky, you jump out. Otherwise, try again until it works.

Moving during the cutscene:
Hit the closest corner of the switch, then hold down-right. Right when the door gets completely out of the water, switch to holding down. When the noise of the door stops, switch to down-left. This will consistently move you very far along the path you need to go. Small optimizations are possible, but this setup is consistent.

Controller shenanigans for going faster:
If you hold the analog stick in a certain direction and push L, R, and Start, the controller will reset that position as neutral. Normally this doesn't help much, but in the case of something fishy, it can let you swim up and down much faster. After you jump over the first wall, you can reset the analog stick so that down is neutral. This way, holding up will make you swim downward twice as fast. After freeing the fish, change the controller so that up is neutral so you can swim upward faster. This will also make jumping over the wall easier. Once over the wall, return the controller to normal. Finally, when swimming down to the last fish, you can set down to neutral to swim down faster.

[IL] 2 Arctic 07 - Walrace 64

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All Categories
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Route options and benchmark times:
Only route: ~1:58

The obvious thing is to go fast. This guide will talk about movement to help you do just that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVPHQWKeFAU

Starting movement:
Position yourself in front of the orange walrus when starting the countdown for the race. If you do this, you can reach the first boost before it does and go fast

Movement without a boost orb:
Boosting using your A ability does nothing without a boost orb. Don't do it. Save your energy.

Movement with a boost orb:
Boost orbs make you go fast, but you go even faster if you boost with A while the boost orb speed is going. Using A also prolongs the effect of the boost orb. This is very good. Its probably best to not hold A though, otherwise you go too fast. Pushing A intermittently is good for controllable, sustainable, long lasting boost.

Movement during the trophy cutscene:
It is possible to grab the trophy during the trophy cutscene. One way to set it up is to cross the finish line in the middle of the track, then wait until the cutscene shows the door opening. Once this happens, wiggle the analog stick rapidly between up and up-right until you hear the sound of the trophy being picked up. When you hear this sound, switch to holding up right and, after a second or two, start boosting with A. This setup is not perfect. If you don't hear the trophy grab sound and you think you should have, just stop moving so you don't end up half way down the track.

Other:
-NEVER TAKE THE JUMP!
-NEVER CUT CORNERS! This really only applies to the hairpin turn at the end of the lap. If you cut to the right of the farthest-out penguin, your lap doesn't count.



2026 Note: C_Sharp pushes the orange walrus instead of just getting in front of it. He also does his ending cutscene skip a bit different. See 40:13.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

[IL] 3 Jungle 01 - Jungle Japes

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
elephant strats: ~2:12
elephantless: ~1:45

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

(Base) Using Elephant:  

-Head to the elephants and start blasting the one on the right while walking around it counter-clockwise. Chase it toward the second elephant while shooting it so that the second elephant helps kill it. Swap into the elephant and head through the boulders, grabbing one as you go. Head to the switch and ditch the boulder somewhere. Swap out of the elephant and use its corpse to get Evo onto the platform and hit the switch. Jump back into the elephant before the cutscene starts to get a cutscene skip. Hold right during the cutscene for decent movement. 

-Swap back into the turtle and head down to the hyenas. Kill both of them, using your B ability to prevent yourself from laughing. 

-Walk into the water near the piranhas to group them, then blast 'em. Hop into one, open the door to the exit and beat the level.

Using (Base) Elephant Strat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTHpvD0KuSU

The turtle's B ability makes you invulnerable, but it also recharges your energy faster. It might not be as fast as quick-recharging but its probably faster because you don't have to swap out and in again.

Be careful when swapping out of the turtle. If you do it too quickly, one of your cannon shots will still be in the air and will explode while you are playing as Evo. This will do massive damage to you and possibly kill you. Wait a fraction of a second before swapping to play safe.

Possible optimizations:
Killing the hyenas is not necessary to activate the teleporter and could be skipped. Currently we kill them because the laughing is annoying, dangerous, and hard to play around.


-Elephantless
A strat where you clip through the boulders as the turtle by spamming B. When you get through, you have to hit the switch as Evo without the support of the elephant corpse. You also take massive damage from the heat area, which is made worse by having the turtle new animal cutscene take place on it. Overall, this strategy is very dangerous and inconsistent. It can be made less dangerous by activating the turtle new animal cutscene earlier in the level at the cost of a few seconds. The time save is small relative to the risk.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRnrT6o-9Sk

2026 Note: C_Sharp (Current WR holder) has found elephantless but NOT hyenaless strat viable enough for use by implementing some sort of evo teleport glitch im not aware of (see Time Stamp 19:31).  Anyone who knows how to execute this glitch, please add.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI
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Techniques
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Cutscene skipping:  
By swapping from one animal to another or from Evo into an animal, you can retain control of your character during the cutscene.  

[IL] 3 Jungle 02 - Jungle Doldrums

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
just killing the hippo: ~2:03
pushing the hippo while killing it: ~1:50

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

Rotate your camera around so you don't stare at the lag. Run toward the hippo and kill it. Jump-swap (toward the hippo jump wall) into the hippo, push the switch, and position the hippo against the wall for a hippo jump. Swap out of the hippo as Evo and head back to the hyena. Use the hyena to push the hippo into the wall a little further (note, C_Sharps 2026 WR simply walks into the wall without the push), then do the hippo jump. Kill the parrot, swap into it, and head to the exit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6xyJbCFx9Y

Killing the hippo:
The hippo can be killed in a bit more than one laughing cycle. Start laughing as you hit the ground by the hippo and keep laughing until you run out of energy, then wait half a second and push B again briefly, let go for another half second and push B again. Repeat this until the hippo dies. If the hippo does not die, get it off screen (see hyena explanation below) and do a fast recharge.
The hippo will spit twice at you before it gets locked in its laughing animation, time a couple of jumps so you jump over the spit. If you get hit and have almost half health, the hippo jump will kill you, so grab the health in the corner of the level after killing the hippo. Also, stay away from the hippo's front and back, even when it is laughing. Animals will still attack you while laughing if they can. If you are in front of it, it will spit at you; if you are behind it, it will lay poop mines.
Do your best to push the hippo towards the hippo jump wall while you kill it. Watch Crackerbean's runs to see the best way. (note: C_Sharps 2026 WR run does not push the hippo).

Killing the parrot:
The parrot takes a while to kill. You'll have to do two fast recharges with the parrot off screen (see hyena explanation below). It can also be annoying to get the parrot in range of your laugh attack. One strategy is to run under the parrot so that it will dive bomb you and move close enough to paralyze with laughter. You can push the parrot a bit while it's laughing to move it closer to the teleporter, but this likely doesn't save time because you are limited by vertical movement while moving to the exit, not horizontal movement. Also, you can (maybe, sometimes) do small amounts of damage by jumping on the parrot. You can't buttstomp it, but the collision will damage both you and the parrot a very small amount. Don't bother doing this though, it'll probably just screw the kill up.

Hyena explanation:
The hyena laughter paralyzes and damages animals after a short "warm up" period. Animals will stay paralyzed for a little bit after you stop laughing before resuming their normal behaviour. While they are paralyzed, the damage from your laugh attack will begin without the warm up period. The paralysis does not last long enough for you to sustain it for much longer after using a full bar of energy, so the animals will need to be warmed-up before they can be damaged again. HOWEVER, animals will not be released from their paralyzed state if they are off screen. This allows you to recharge your laugh attack and start damaging the animals without having to go through the warm up period. Always put animals off screen when killing them as the hyena.

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Techniques
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Jump-swapping:
Jumping in a direction just before swapping from one animal into another will cause the first animal's corpse to continue moving in that direction further than if you didn't jump. This can be used to position corpses in better spots for later. In Jungle Doldrums it is used to position the hyena closer to where the hippo will be abandoned in order to minimize the distance you have to walk as Evo.

Hippo jump:
Position the hippo against a wall, then use the hyena to push it into the wall a bit further. If the hippo is facing directly into the wall, then it is sufficiently far into the wall when its two front legs are inside the wall. Jump on top of the hippo and spam R to swap between the two. Swapping into the hippo will force the hippo's body upward and out of the wall, in turn launching the hyena corpse very high. If you instantly swap out of the hippo and back into the hyena, you can gain control of the hyena while it is still in the air.

Fast recharging:
Swapping out of an animal to play as Evo, allowing you to recharge you're attack energies using Evo's recharge rate, which is often faster than the recharge rate of the animal you are playing as.

[IL] 3 Jungle 03 - Swamp of Eternal Stench

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
hyena first + vine finish (or gorilla jump finish): ~2:00
gorillas first: ~1:35

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

New route:
1) Rotate the camera so that you are facing the two barrels in the swamp and boost under them. You'll end up near where the gorilla path is. Take that ramp out of the swamp and go fight a gorilla.
2) Be the gorilla, pick up a barrel and run into the wall by the magic rope. Hold up, rotate the camera clockwise, and then jump out of the gorilla and land on its shoulders. Do a gorilla jump to hit the magic rope and then swap back into the gorilla.
3) Head back to the hyena area. You can take a shortcut through the middle if you have enough health (see video).
4) Drop your barrel to the left of the hyena on the left and buttstomp the hyena to death.
5) Swap into the hyena and back out again, then pick up the barrel and gorilla jump to the teleporter as Evo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDpvopu-U3E

Notes on the gorilla fight:  
Spam B. Good luck.  

Notes on the hyena fight:  
The hyena cannot move to the left of its position (where you put the barrel). Try to stay to on the other side of it so that it gets stuck against its invisible wall thing. Spam A so you do your spin attack to make landing your buttstomps easier.  

Old route:  
Rotate the camera so that it is facing behind you, then boost forward through the swamp. This brings you to the hyenas. Rotating the camera left and right are slightly different here, rotating right causes you to bump the tree and rotating left does not. Both work, but not bumping the tree is preferable. If you like rotating right, then over-rotate once and then rotate left again to avoid hitting the tree.
Once on land, kill a hyena and take control of it. The hyena ahead and slightly to the right is easier to kill than the hyena on the far right.  
As the hyena, move toward the gorillas. Take the 3 small platforms leading to a small area of dry ground, then jump through the poop to the gorilla area. The safe place to jump is straight across from the far point of the dry land. The swamp is shallow where you land and you take less damage. However, there is an instant-kill area a little bit before the gorilla area, so you'll have to jump again to get over it.  
Kill the gorillas. Remember to use fast recharging and the laughing strategy describe in the Swamp of Eternal Stench guide (keep animals off-screen to keep them in their "laughing" state).  
Use the gorillas to perform a gorilla jump at the energy cell close to the nearby wall. This brings you up to the magic rope. Free the magic rope and ride it to the exit. You can perform an RTA rope or a TAS rope if you like.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkhTHwClkKA

Notes on the hyena fight:
If you keep boosting past the hyena that we recommend attacking, you see a pipe with a power cell in it. Try to keep the hyena between yourself and the pipe, such that your attacks push it toward the pipe. This pushes the hyena away from where the game wants it to be, so the hyena will run towards you trying to get back to its normal area. It is much easier to hit the hyena from the front than from the back, so you should be able to kill it faster. Current strats are to simply spam the B button so you're constantly popping into and out of your shell attack. This will continue to be the strat until we understand how to use the shell attack effectively. The shell attack also protects you from the hyena's laugh attack, but not forever.
If you start laughing, there are three things you can do: 1) ignore it and try to kill the hyenawhile using wonky controls, 2) jump out of the turtle and back into it (not ideal, you'll get a new animal cutscene that you wouldn't normally get), 3) grab one of the nearby energy cells (good idea if it is really close by). Option 1 works if you're confident and you're close to killing the hyena already. Option 2 and 3 are both methods for removing you from the "laughing" state. Do whichever you feel is fastest.  
If you run out of energy to use your shell attack, don't do a fast recharge; it causes an unnecessary new animal cutscene.
An "ideal" hyena kill would be killing one quickly AND killing it at close to the gorillas as possible. Given how difficult it is to kill things with the racing turtle, going for a fast kill is best, regardless of where the hyena is.  

Notes on the gorilla fight:  
The gorillas should take 3 "cycles" to kill: the first cycle where you use all of your laughing energy and 2 other cycles after fast recharges. You want to kill both gorillas at the same time. Sometimes the gorillas have small amounts of health left after the third cycle. If this happens, then just press and release B a couple of times to do small bits of damage, no need for a fast recharge. If one gorilla starts laughing later than the other, you may need to do one longer fast recharge to gain more energy so that you have enough to kill the gorilla that delayed taking damage.  
The "ideal" gorilla fight will end with both gorillas in good position to do the gorilla jump (killing speed isn't usually a factor here because of how easy it is to use the laugh attack). This means one gorilla should die very close to one of the three nearby barrels and the other one should die close to the energy cell by the wall. Because the gorillas are immobile while laughing, it isn't too hard to push them around to get them into good positions. The gorilla that is pushed toward the wall should not be pushed too close to where the gorilla jump is performed or else you will swap directly into it from the gorilla holding the barrel and the gorilla jump will fail.  
The gorillas will still perform jump attacks if you stand in front of them. These attacks are usually not dangerous, but they make it impossible to push the gorillas backwards. Take this into account when you are pushing the gorillas around. Furthermore, don't spend so much time pushing the gorillas that you run out of laughing energy. You shouldn't do a fast recharge while the gorillas are on screen. If you do, they will break out of their "laughing" state and take longer to kill. This means that if you run out of energy while pushing a gorilla, you have to waste time running away again and rotating the camera to regain your energy. Best to do the running away and recharging while you still have energy to keep killing the gorillas.  
Pushing the gorillas around is not exactly difficult, but its also a very small time save. If the gorillas are facing in bad directions (that is, they jump whenever you try to push them where you want to go), or if you just don't have success with the strat, or if you just don't feel like it, then don't do it.  

Vine surfing (fun strat):  
If you gain enough height to land ontop of the bush that the magic rope is connected to, you can stand on it and it will carry you to the exit. This is slower than using the rope because you can't swing off the rope to get to the end faster, but its kinda fun I guess. You can also get the hyena to the exit using a vine surf. This is often easier because the hyena gains more height from the gorilla jump than gorillas do.  

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Techniques
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Fast recharging:
Swapping out of an animal to play as Evo for a bit to take advantage of his faster recharge rates so that you can refill your energy faster. A normal fast recharge involves swapping out and immediately back in to regain about 70% of your energy. Longer fast recharges involve swapping out of the animal, but delaying the swap back in so that you regain more energy.  

Gorilla jumping:
Jump onto the back of a deactivated gorilla that is holding an object, then run into the object to gain lots of height. You can gain more height by jumping at the same time as the game launches you upward.  
When you are playing as a gorilla that is holding an object and you swap directly from it into a different animal, the deactivated gorilla will drop the object. If you are swap out of the gorilla to play as Evo, the gorilla will not drop the object. Therefore, make sure no deactivated animals are nearby while setting up the gorilla jump.  

RTA rope/TAS rope:
Basically if you swing on the magic rope just right, you can jump off it to land on the teleporter area faster than just waiting for the rope. An RTA rope is when you swing onto the grassy area near the tree trunk with the teleporter on it. A TAS rope is when you swing directly onto the tree trunk or even onto the teleporter. If you miss, you lose something like a minute of time. Overall, not worth doing unless you're confident. Also, you'll have to figure out the swinging yourself because I can't explain it.  

[IL] 3 Jungle 04 - Weight For It!

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
normal (nolo fish): ~2:22  
yolofish: ~2:07  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  

So 2026 update, C_Sharp does some tech here the completely reworks this level. Its black magic and idk how it works so someone figure it out and add it! anyway, here it is at Time Stamp 23:53:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

First things first, rotate the camera to face away from the two red beam pillar things as they are the source of lag IN ALL VIDEO GAMES EVER. NEVER LOOK AT THEM. Second of all, jump off the starting platform so you land as close to shore as possible. This is because the lion swims slower than it walks.  
Head toward the gorilla and kill it. It will take 4 roars. The lion recharges its roaring energy pretty quickly, but it is still slightly faster to do a fast recharge than to wait. Do the fast recharge after 2 roars. Or don't do it, IDK.  
Jump-swap into the gorilla to launch the lion closer to the elephant tree. As the gorilla, grab the metal box and position yourself by the tree and set up a gorilla jump. Swap back into the lion and gorilla jump up to the elephant and swap into it. If you can get the lion to land on the tree, that's best. If it falls off, who cares. Immediately swap back into the lion.  
As the lion, roar and push the gorilla toward the cliff near the parrot. Roaring feels faster, but might not be. Also, don't roar more than twice as you can actually destroy the box if you attack it 3-4 times. Do another gorilla jump up the cliff. This jump needs to be higher than other gorilla jumps, so use the lion's jump ability simultaneously with the gorilla jump to get up.
At the top of the cliff, head toward the lever that raises the platforms and hit it. Then move to the piranha closest to you and kill it. Afterwards, either roar/push it to the exit or perform the YOLO fish. Use the piranha to get to the teleporter. Enter the piranha as soon as you deem safe - even on land - because the teleporter takes a bit of time to activate after entering the piranha. If you reach the teleporter before it activates (and you still have plenty of health), you waited too long to play as the piranha.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P8x-ktqGno

Notes on the gorilla fight:  
An easy way to play this fight is to stand on the tree root and just roar at the gorilla as it walks by. The tree trunk is outside of the gorillas aggro zone, so it's free. This strat is slower than an ideal fight. The best fight simply involves you attacking it twice, fast recharging, and attacking it twice again. You must position yourself carefully so that the gorilla doesn't fall down the cliff and get stuck by the lag beam-pillar thing. When you fast recharge, the gorilla will revert to his walking cycle, so use that to your advantage.  
An as-of-yet unattempted strat involves killing the gorilla in 3 roars by blowing up the TV while the gorilla is near it to do extra damage.  

Notes on the piranha fight:  
The easiest and most consistent way to kill the piranha is to jump into the water near the slope out of the water. The piranha will swim towards you. When it reaches the shore, buttstump it once to kill it. This sets you up perfectly to push the piranha to the exit.  
The piranha can also be killed in one roar, so killing it is easy. The important part is to aim your roar so that the piranha corpse hits the ramp out of the water and stays there. Its easiest to do this by jumping into the water, but if you want to stay on the shore, then make sure you roar at a slight leftward angle. Roaring is probably faster if you do it right and is almost certainly faster if you want to YOLO fish.  
Water physics in this game are almost frictionless, so the piranha can end up basically anywhere in the water if you miss. Pushing the piranha in the water can be tough as well, not to mention slow. If you misplace the piranha, attempting the YOLO fish is substantially faster, though still very dangerous.  

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Techniques
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Fast recharging:  
Jumping out of an animal to play as Evo for a bit before jumping back into the animal allows you to recharge your ability energy faster than continuing to play as the animal to recharge ability energy.  

Gorilla jumping:  
Grab an object as a gorilla (not a boulder unfortunately), then position the gorilla where you want to jump and swap out of it. Make sure you swap out to be Evo; if you swap directly into a different animal, the gorilla will drop the object. Then, as a different animal, jump on the gorilla's back and walk into the object to gain lots of height. If you use a jump ability at the same time as the gorilla jump, you can gain extra height.  

YOLO fish:  
Basically just playing as the piranha immediately after killing it and jumping from that pool of water all the way to the teleporter. You need to time your jump right to get far enough to not die and angle the jump right so you don't run into the tree root. This trick should only be attempted if you know what you are doing. Otherwise, only attempt this if you have almost full health AND either you are desperate for a time save or you failed to position the piranha properly (as shown in the video below).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ51RD9WwA

[IL] 3 Jungle 05 - Jungle Jumps

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
base: ~3:13  
base + jumps jump: ~2:53  
keyjump: ~2:11  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  

2026 Note: There is YET AGAIN some black magic going on here that I dont know how it works. Please kindly someone add the guide. Far as I can tell, instead of doing ANYTHING in this guide, C_Sharp is saying "nah im good" and going straight to the tree, doing some sort of NASA liftoff and just beating the level... see for yourself at Time Stamp 26:00.  

Its something like Nasa jump to bronze key > Kill 1 hyena and switch > kill gorillas > gold key and kill other hyena > get silver key > cutscene skip > get WR.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

There's a few ways to do this level because some strats are very hard and very much optional unless you're going for a top time.  

Route 1: The easy way  
-Kill a hyena, play as it to kill the other hyena  
-grab the gold key in the cave  
-head to the gorillas, kill them, play as one  
-grab the bronze key on top of the tree stump  
-take either path to the silver key (fall down and use the platforms to get up OR swing on vines and take the high road - harder but faster)  
-get silver key and beat the level  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE46coZGu64

Route 2: Key jumping  
Basically the same thing, but you do the key jump, so instead of getting the cutscene after the silver key, you get it after the bronze key. As a result, its faster to fall down from the bronze key stump and use the platforms to get up to the teleporter due to cutscene movement.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzSXnqhZrHA

Route 3: Hyena jumping and key jumping (optimal)  
-Kill a hyena, play as it to kill the other hyena  
-perform the hyena jump to grab the bronze key  
-kill the gorillas, DONT play as one  
-grab the gold key  
-key jump to the silver key  
-head to the exit  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82YP1kfOXrY

Notes on the hyena fight:  
Screw this fight. Seriously. The only thing I'll say is that if you are doing route 3, then make sure you kill the second hyena as close to the cave entrance as possible. This is easy to do because the hyena will always run away from you if you are close to it, so the movement is easy to control, and because you are killing it as the first hyena, so you are playing as a good combat animal. Other than that, screw this fight. You can watch some fights from Crackerbean's or Mcill's runs (any category since you have to do this fight in all of them) and try to copy what they do, but mostly you'll have to figure out what works for you.  

Notes on the gorilla fight:  
The easy way to do the fight is to move close to the gorillas to aggro them, then run away and blast 'em when they jump off their platform. If you run far enough back from the way you approached the gorillas, you will deaggro them and can blast them from safety. Usually you will kill one gorilla as you run out of energy, so you'll have to do a fast recharge or maybe a slow fast recharge to kill the second one (up to you because the hyena recharges its missiles pretty quickly actually).
However, it is possible to group up the gorillas so that each missile will hit both of them. This is known as the double gorilla (HYPE!). Setting this up is more of an art than a science at this point. One strat is to approach the gorillas aiming just to the left of the dark line down the side of the gorilla. After getting up the initial hump of the gorilla platform, wait for a bit, then run away to deaggro the gorillas. The basic idea is that the gorillas get aggro'd and start moving toward you. The closer one reaches you first but moves a bit past you when it jumps off the platform, so it turns around (the reason you wait for a bit is to allow this to happen). Having it turn around allows the farther gorilla to catch up so that they are side-by-side when they get deaggro'd. It's hard to do, but if you're looking for video footage of attempts (not necessarily successes), any of Mcill's or Crackerbean's runs in any category should have attempts at double gorillas.  

Notes on movement during the key cutscene:  
You CAN cutscene skip this cutscene by jumping out of your animal, getting the last key as Evo, and jumping back into your animal. Its a 1-2 frame trick and, honestly, isn't worth going for. In the optimal (hyena jump) route, it is actually slower than not cutscene skipping. If you're doing any other route, you're better off trying to upgrade to the hyena jump route rather than trying to optimize with cutscene skips.  
The cutscene is separated into two parts: one where the camera moves to the elevator and one where it shows the elevator moving up and down. Once the camera stops moving, it enters the second part of the cutscene. This is important because when it switches to the second half, you regain control of your character. This is one of the main reasons why cutscene skipping here is not recommended; you don't save as much time as you think because you're regaining control sooner than you think. Like with cutscene skipping, you want to optimize your movement during the cutscene. Movement depends on which key you grabbed last.  
First, if you grabbed the gold key last (the one in the cave), you're doing it wrong and should uninstall this game. On a more serious note, grabbing this key last results in the longest possible cutscene since the camera has to move the farthest to get to the elevator.  
If you are grabbing the bronze key last (the one on the tree trunk), You want to hold up/up-right until the thing ends. As a side-note, don't jump during the cutscene because you'll risk taking fall damage.  
If you are grabbing the silver key last (the key jump one), then you want to start by holding up-left. Do this until you see yourself on the camera (you should be sliding up against the wall). Once you see yourself, you can easily navigate down the elevator then continue moving to the right (ish) to get close to, but not on top of, the teleporter. If you get on the teleporter before the cutscene ends, you have to watch the level end cutscene twice, just like in Smashing Start. Because you can make it all the way to the teleporter during the second part of the cutscene, a cutscene skip does not allow you to progress any farther and so cutscene skipping can only lose time from having to swap out and into the animal. The movement in this cutscene is the same for the gorilla and the biker hyena but the gorilla cannot make it all the way to the teleporter because it is slow. However, as the gorilla you can use your ground-pound ability to see where you are during the cutscene. The shockwaves from the attack will appear in the teleporter area that is visible during the cutscene.  

---------------
Techniques
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Key jump:  
The optimal and probably easiest key jump method is to approach the key jump ramp head-on and start boosting just after you pass the plant to your left. Wait until you are completely airborne, then turn to the left and fire 3/4 missiles. This should recoil you straight into the key. If you aren't getting high enough from the jump, then you are either not moving fast enough or you are rotating to the left too quickly. If you are missing the key, then you need to start shooting missiles sooner/later.  

As the biker hyena, approach the key jump ramp head-on, but not directly centered; you want to hit the right side of the ramp. Move toward the ramp and start boosting just a bit after you pass the massive plant on your left. Right before you hit the ramp, switch from holding up to holding up-right and continue holding up-right until you've made it onto the tree. When you get airborne, stop boosting. Boosting in the air doesn't help (I don't think it does anyway). When you land on the tree, you will probably need to boost again if you landed on the sloping part. Then you've made it!
You need to have full boosting energy when you start this trick, but you also need to boost to make the jump over the log just beforehand, so don't move too quickly or you'll start the key jump without enough energy. Also, don't boost too much before the log jump. Basically what I'm saying is use bombs wisel.... I mean use boost to get throu... I mean use boosts wisely.  
The method described above is Mcill's key jump strategy. It is by no means the only way to do the key jump. If you don't like it, experiment, explore, and invent.  
If you are low on health (anything less than 50%) and are worried about missing the key jump, it may be a good idea to grab some health. The box near the platforms that lead to the center tree is the most convenient for healing. If you miss key jump there is a good chance you will lose 49% of your health from fall damage. It is recommended that you heal above 50% before doing the key jump unless the small time loss from healing is enough to prevent a PB.  

Hyena Jump:  
Position a biker hyena against the tree trunk that has the bronze key on it and exit the hyena such that it is facing the trunk. Walk back to the second biker hyena as Evo and bring it toward the tree trunk. Position the second hyena behind the first hyena and swap into the first hyena, then back into the second hyena. This pushes the first hyena further into the tree. If you push it too far, it will pop out. If you don't push it far enough, you won't gain enough height from the jump. Position the second hyena on top of the first hyena and as far into the tree as possible, then swap rapidly between the two animals. If done correctly, you will gain enough height to land on top of the tree trunk. If done incorrectly, try again until you succeed or until you die. Typically, you will only take fall damage if you start holding forward on a failed attempt.  
This trick is analogous to the hippo jump on Jungle Doldrums but is harder because the biker hyena has a smaller hitbox than the hippo.  

Fast recharging:  
Jumping out of an animal to play as Evo for a little bit before jumping back into the animal can recharge your ability energy faster than simply waiting. A normal fast recharge involves swapping out and immediately back in to recover ~70% of your energy. A "slow" fast recharge involves swapping out and then delaying the swap back in briefly to recover 100% of your energy.  

Cutscene skipping:  
Don't actually do this on this level.  

[IL] 3 Jungle 06 - Evo's Escape

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All Categories
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Route options and benchmark times:
no B button: ~6:59
B button: ~4:19
B button + lag reduction: ~4:15

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until you can beat the level consistently. If you are using faster strats and you are failing the level, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtW5MPtG52w

The goal of this level is to get 12100 points or more, just FYI.

Here is a 2026 expert demonstration as well with different targets (Time Stamp 28:04)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

This level is an autoscroller, so the strats are relatively simple. First, end the cutscene ASAP by spamming A. Second, always hold B because this speeds the autoscroller up. Third, you want to avoid lag as much as possible. This is done in two ways: looking away from inherently laggy sections and completing the goal of the level as fast as possible (so you can stare at the roof sooner). The general optimized strats are described below:
-kill one of the first two chameleons (the front one, not the back one)
-kill one of the second group of chameleons (the one moving to the left as you approach the group
-look at the roof during the hyena section because the hyenas cause lag and are only worth 100 points.
-look back down near the end of the hyenas and kill one or both of the last two hyenas. 100 points is actually relevant because the rest of your score should come from 500-point animals. 200 points is usually irrelevant.
-blow up the missile crate, use missiles to kill all of the piranhas and one of the two turtles. Kill the last turtle with darts.
-blow up the next missile crate, kill as many piranhas as possible, aiming only for piranhas that are near the bottom of the pond.
-During the shooting gallery, target the turtles and kill every other turtle. They come in groups of 5 followed by one box, so going kill-skip-kill-skip-kill-box-repeat allows you to kill 3/5 every cycle. If you are feeling confident, you can do the kill 2 skip 1 strat: kill-kill-skip-kill-kill-box-repeat. This gets you 4/5 every cycle. Killing 5/5 is possible but really hard and not even faster than 3/5 or 4/5.

After the shooting gallery, you should be done. If so, stare at the roof until the end of the stage. If not, do the following until you have 12100 points, then look at the roof until the end of the stage:
-kill both of the elephants
-kill everything in the gorilla/hippo section
-try to kill the lions (but never turn around to finish a kill. Its very laggy)
-If you REALLY need to, destroy the missile crate and kill the three chameleons. These chameleons cause a lot of lag, so you'll lose time but its still better than losing the level
-If all else fails, kill the parrots

Notes on shooting gallery:
Always aim for the turtles, even if you suck at killing them. Turtles and chameleons are both worth 500, so technically you can aim for the chameleons if you are somehow better at killing them than killing turtles, but that doesn't seem likely. Turtules take 4 hits to kill. Hyenas are only worth 100 points, so you have to kill 5 hyenas for every turtle. This means even killing just 2 turtles is about as good as aiming for hyenas. The double dart upgrades can help a lot if you're having problems as well. Furthermore, animal hitboxes are weird here. If you shoot a dart near an animal and then look away, the dart will almost certainly damage the animal, even if you know it missed. This means that killing a turtle typically involves hitting it three times, then launching one more dart at it before readjusting the camera to aim at the next turtle.

Beginner strats:
The biggest thing about this level is beating it, so you can just focus on killing everything, without holding B and regardless of if it lags the game or not, just to make sure you get 12100 points. When you are comfortable with your ability to beat the level, the best thing you can do is learn to beat the level while holding B. After that, add the hyena section skip. The hyena section skip is the only real "skip" because everything else is only "skipped" if you already have 12100 points.

Killing parrots:
NEVER rely on killing parrots to reach the final score. They are very easy to miss and you will likely lose the stage. Parrots should only be killed for fun or if you already did your best but still don't have enough points.

Notes on killing Evo:
Evo has a fixed movement pattern. Learn the pattern by playing the level and getting 12100 points, then simply watching Evo for a while without killing him until you know what his pattern is. When you know what the pattern is, you know where to aim so that you can kill Evo quickly. You can watch Mcill's or Crackerbean's runs to see good examples of fast kill strats if you need further guidance.

***MISC NOTE:***

Evo's Escape glitch:
There is a glitch in this level that allows you to spawn and control a chameleon in this level. This glitch is achieved by watching the cutscene at the start of the level, then ending it as Evo is jumping into the chameleon (sort of like a cutscene skip, where you want to be swapping into an animal when a cutscene starts). This spawns a chameleon at the start of the level that you are in control of. You can't see yourself doing anything because the level still plays through normally and you still have control of the rail shooter. However, you can use the chameleon you are in control of to help kill Evo at the end of the stage. This glitch has no real use as the timeloss from watching the cutscene is greater than any known time save you could achieve (also, there are no known time saves since you can already kill Evo faster than it takes for the game to realize it). Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to control the chameleon because your camera will be incredibly wonky.
A potential use for this glitch could be if Evo exists on the level somewhere and can be killed without collecting 12100 points. You could use the chameleon to kill Evo and end the level without finishing the autoscroller. There is a model of microchip Evo in the very corner of the stage behind the tree, but it is likely not a killable character. In the end, such a skip is probably non-existent but we can dream.

Note: From here, the 2026 WR holder C_Sharp goes to arctic. Guess we dont respect WWT anymore ehhhh?

[IL] 4 Desert 01 - Fun In The Sun

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
base (no cutscene skip): ~1:27  
cutscene skip: ~1:29 (cutscene skip route is intended only for combining with borassic park cutscene skip route)  
getting on elevator during cutscene skip: ~1:25  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDMT-ZANLY

Basically, just beat the level, but do it fast. The correct sequence is described below with notes on each step.

1) Head to the second area. You can jump straight up to the door from the box, no need to use a camel to push it. Lag should be minimized by pointing the camera at walls during the first area. Lag isn't too significant in the second area. Note that zooming the camera in at the start of this level causes lag.

2) Hit the pump switch and use the pump to get up to the elevator switch. Perform the pump jump to do this optimally.

3) Hit the elevator switch and ride the elevator to get up to the elevator. You can shoot this switch to activate it (only switch in the game that you can shoot to activate. Weird right?). Shooting the switch feels safer (from a platforming perspective) and probably a few frames faster, but either touching or shooting the switch will work.

4) Walk along the pipe to hit all four valves. Don't jump off of the valves because if you do you get a weird knock-back effect that is probably slower than if you don't get it. If you just walk off the valves with the camera zoomed in (and the camera is positioned behind you), your camera will rotate a bit and throw off your angle, so make sure your camera is zoomed out.

5) Head back to the elevator and onto the teleporter. The straightest line is to cross under the pipe between the first and second valves. Ideally, you will do a cutscene skip here. The cutscene skip does not only give you a chance to improve your movement, but it does activate a new animal cutscene. It is important to activate this NAC here because if you don't, you will activate it during the Borassic Park cutscene skip and will be unable to extend it. If you aren't going to do the Borassic Park cutscene skip, then you don't need to cutscene skip here. Unfortunately, you will still get this NAC in Whirlwind Tour if you skip it here, so you cannot skip it altogether and save time. Movement during this cutscene skip is hard because you have to time a jump onto the elevator and time another one off of the elevator. If you want to learn it, ask somebody about it. Maybe somebody will explain it in writing eventually, but not now. The difference between optimal cutscene movement and completely failing the movement is only 5 seconds, so no big deal.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Pump jump:
Turn the pump on by jumping on top of the switch. Immediately jump toward the pump platform. The cutscene will start while you are in the air right beside the pump platform, or sometimes while you are on it. When the cutscene ends, the pump platform should be just below you and you can hold forward to fall onto it if you aren't already on it.

Cutscene skipping:
Swapping between animals or from Evo into an animal when a cutscene starts allows you to retain control of your character during the cutscene. In this level you only use if you are going to do a cutscene skip in Borassic Park to activate a new animal cutscene so you don't get it during the Borassic Park cutscene. Unless you're crackerbean, then you do it to save a bunch of time.



2026 note: C_Sharp has MAJOR differences in his routing from this guide. He does some sort of forbidden catcus trick to launch himself in the air... I dont even know just see below (Time Stamp 42:27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

[IL] 4 Desert 02 - Hot Cross Buns

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
no cutscene skips: ~2:28  
cutscene skips: ~2:23  
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  

Optimal route:
1) Kill the foxes, the vulture, and the speaker in the first area. Kill the vulture last.
2) Swap into the vulture and carry a fox to the first switch/second speaker.
3) Drop the fox near the first switch, hit the switch and swap into the fox (small cutscene skip here with no associated movement).
4) Use the fox to blow up the speaker, swap back into the vulture.
5) Carry the fox to the area above the scorpion pit switch, dropping the fox just short of the switch.
6) Hit the switch with a vulture hitbox extension, swap into the fox for a cutscene skip. Hold up and maybe wiggle a bit to the right during the cutscene.
7) Destroy the nearby speaker, then destroy the nearby health box and immediately jump out of the fox and back into it. This will remove you from your "dizzy" state.
8 ) Grab the health if you need it or if it is convenient and you want to be safe
9) Turn the O's into X's. The last one can be hit underwater. You may need to time your jumps properly to make it work. You want to land as far forward as possible on the first platform so it deactivates as late as possible. You also want to land on the third platform as early as possible so it activates as soon as possible.
10) Reach the opposite shore by spin-attacking. Spin-attack while in the water to avoid taking damage. There is a specific spot that is most consistent to make it up to the shore. Watch crackerbean's or mcill's runs (any category) to see where this is.
11) Blow up the speaker and head to the end. Dizzy walking is faster than removing the dizziness, but you can continue using the spin attack to delay the dizzy effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knFDCkaVxII

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/876266491

Safe Route:
So, it turns out there is no "safe route". I'll make one up right now. Perform step 1 as described above. Then use animal stacking to carry both the camel and the fox across the pit. Hit the switch, then use the camel to blow up the speaker. Get back in the vulture and use animal stacking to carry both the camel and the fox to the scorpion den. Use the camel to kill all of the scorpions, except maybe the one on the clifftop, that might be playing it too safe. Grouping the scorpions up is faster than killing one at a time. Once the scorpions are dead, this level is very safe. Perform steps 5-11 as described above. You can watch mcill's or crackerbean's 99% runs (not any%) to see this type of scorpion fight in action. There's no video of this "route" because I made it up just now.

Avoiding scorpions (for the optimal route):
To avoid taking scorpion damage, fly just to the left of the tree on the far end of the pond, then turn and fly straight to the switch. I think this path causes one of the two problem scorpions to walk into the scorpion den as it chases you, preventing it from hitting you. The other scorpion will always chase you. Try to time your jumps to avoid its lightning attack.

Strategies for step 1:
The vulture is on a cycle: it only flies low enough to be hit for a little bit before flying up again. Therefore, fast/slow times for step 1 depend on making/losing vulture cycles. Making/losing cycles in turn is mostly dependent on killing the foxes fast. You want to group the foxes up so that your cannon AOE hits all of them. Current strats involve teleporting straight forward after taking 1-2 steps forward from the entrance teleporter, then rotating the camera to face the foxes. Blast the foxes while running away from them, rotating the camera as necessary to stay on target.
You have the choice of destroying the speaker before or after killing the foxes. Destroying the speaker first is recommended because you spend less time waiting for the cannon to rotate. To do this, aim at the speaker while you are spawning, then shoot it as soon as you can. Afterwards, turn around and walk a few steps past the starting point and teleport as described above, then follow the steps as described above. To destroy the speaker after killing the foxes, simply rotate the camera and walk toward the speaker. Shoot the speaker when the cannon is in position. Mcill destroys the speakers first, but crackerbean prefers to kill the foxes first, so you can refer to their runs (any category) to see examples of these different strats.
In either case, once you have destroyed both speaker and foxes you should rotate the camera toward the vulture (or rather, to the spot in the vulture cycle where it flies low enough to be hit) and walk towards that area. Holding Z really helps with aiming here. When the vulture is in range, blast it. Don't walk too close or the vulture will aggro and leave its cycle, putting it out of range again. You can kill the vulture in one volley if you have full energy. If the vulture doesn't die in one volley, you have two choices. First, you can wait for a second cycle and finish it off then. Second, you can walk forward and aggro the vulture. The vulture will fly up, but then fly down right in your face to hit you. When it does this, back up while holding Z and blast it.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Hitbox extensions:
Animals with melee attacks can have their hitboxes extended in the direction of its attack by using the melee attack. This extension can go through walls and floors to hit things on the other side.

Cutscene skipping:
Swapping between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts allows you to retain control of your character during a cutscene.

Animal stacking:
It is possible to stack animals so that the vulture can carry two animals at a time. Carry the cannon camel to a dead fox, land, and drop the camel while you are on the ground. The vulture will be perfectly centered on the camel. Without moving, push R to swap from the vulture into the fox. As the fox, jump on top of the vulture, then swap back into the vulture. As the vulture. hit B to pick up the camel and then start flying. The fox will stay on top of the vulture as long as you are flying.

[IL] 4 Desert 03 - Sting In The Tail

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
vulture finish: ~1:48  
kangaroo finish: ~1:39  
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlR2-l8VHZw

You're mostly playing this level through normally, but with small optimizations that will be discussed below.

Moving as the desert fox:
It is currently believed (not confirmed) that the desert fox moves faster while using its spin attack. Spin attacking for too long results in a dizzy state that you want to avoid. Therefore, as the desert fox you want to alternate between spinning and not spinning to move faster without getting dizzy.
It IS confirmed that spinning off an edge will usually give you a small push forward. Sometimes you don't get this effect and sometimes you actually bonk off the edge, but generally spinning off edges is a good idea.
Spinning and jumping at the same time lets you jump a little higher than normal, allowing you to jump onto the pillar section (right before the kangaroos) halfway through it instead of at the start. This is called the "Sha jump" after Sha_lightning.
One other thing is that the scorpions' lightning attacks can be dodged by jumping right before the lightning is created.

The Kangaroo fight:
This fight can be tough sometimes if the kangaroos decide not to take damage from your attack or if they decide its time for you to die. Crackerbean has a setup that involves walking toward the kangaroo on the right, causing it to move away from you. Use this to get it stuck in the far right corner, then start attacking it. Swap into the kangaroo once its dead.

The vulture fight:
As the kangaroo, you can jump straight onto the vulture area without crossing the river. Do that to make it up to the vultures. The vultures require seven butt-stomps or one punch and six butt-stomps to kill. Take your pick. If you're having problems, you can de-aggro the vultures by standing on the edge of the platform. If a vulture is also near the edge, you can butt-stomp it without aggroing it for an easy kill. Swap into the vulture once its dead. This area has lots of lag, but the lag can be decrease by pointing the camera at the wall between the kangaroo tower and the exit.

Moving to the exit:
The easy way to get to the exit is to fly there as the vulture, but this is slow so only do it if you are uncomfortable with the kangaroo movement. Otherwise, the optimal route requires you to swap immediately back into the kangaroo, then falling down to the lower level of the vulture tower facing the wall between the kangaroo tower and the exit. From there, jump to shore and move to the exit. The jump up to the exit can be difficult, but not so bad. If you jump to the left and try to get up from the the diagonal edge, it seems to be more consistent. Perform a pillar squeeze to get onto the teleporter.

Note on the desert fox's dizzy effect:
Dizziness is actually not caused by spinning for too long, it is caused by spinning while having sufficiently low ability energy. I guess the developers only expected you to spin if you had full energy or something, so having low energy means you've spun long enough to be dizzy. For example, if you drain your B button energy as the kangaroo, then swap into the fox and spin for an instant, you will be dizzy. Not the biggest deal (especially in this level), but can catch some people by surprise if they don't know.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Pillar squeeze:
Some levels in the desert have pillars around the teleporters that only the desert fox can fit through. The game expects you to use the vulture to carry a desert fox to the exit. Instead, if you exit a large animal like the vulture or the kangaroo and move onto the animals corpse as Evo (using the height you get from the exit), you can walk from the animal's corpse onto the teleporter.

Sha jumping:
As the desert fox, push A and B at the same time to jump and spin at the same time. This gives you a slightly higher jump.

[IL] 4 Desert 04 - Borassic Park

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
base: ~2:15

- cutscene skip: ~2:04
- jurassic jump: ~1:55
It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzeJiqpbeac

You're mostly playing this level through normally, but with small optimizations that will be discussed below.

Cutscene skipping:
All four archaeological discoveries can be cutscene skipped by jumping out of the fox and hitting the cameras as evo while jumping back into the fox. These cutscenes are approximately frame perfect, maybe two frames, and it might also depend on the oscillation of the cameras. Furthermore, they are very short cutscenes and movement during the 3rd and 4th cutscene is difficult to optimize. Therefore, cutscene skipping is typically avoided (frame perfect, small time save at the risk of small-medium time loss, difficult to capitalize on even if you do get it.
The only exception is the first discovery. If you cutscene skip the first discovery, you can make it to the second discovery and trigger its cutscene as the first cutscene ends. Doing so extends the cutscene skip into the second cutscene, giving you a two-for-one. This cutscene skip extension is only possible if you do not get the desert fox new animal cutscene after jumping back into the fox. Getting the NAC in Fun In The Sun allows you to do this extension. If you did not get the NAC in Fun In The Sun, do not attempt this cutscene skip.
Movement during the cutscene is fairly easy because you can see yourself most of the time. You want to move straight forward and a little bit to the right during the first cutscene, then move to the right during the second cutscene.

Getting the fourth archaeological discovery as the armed desert fox:
You can jump up the dinosaur skull as the fox to get the fourth discovery. The easiest place to do this is by the dinosaur's nose. The jump can be a bit tricky, but isn't too hard with a bit of practice.

Jurassic jump:
When you enter the area with the 3 fire dinosaurs, you can wait by the one on the left until it pops up, then jump on its head and, from there, onto the wall that leads to the kangaroo area. The RNG for the dino to pop up can make this trick inconsistent. If you get bad luck it might be slower than walking around the area.

Killing the kangaroo:
The kangaroo has two patterns he can run in once you hit it the first time. One is easier to deal with than the other, but the best you can do is memorize where the kangaroo will go for each pattern and adapt accordingly. Hold Z to help aim and try to stay close to the kangaroo so more bullets will hit it per shot. After damaging it enough, it will turn to fight you. Continue aiming at him with Z and shooting him while walking backwards.

Getting to the exit as the kangaroo:
We don't have a name for this jump yet. Somebody name it please. It is possible to skip getting the vulture by jumping to the exit as the kangaroo. Position yourself just left of line on the wall by the teleporter (see video for approximate location). Hold forward and jump a little after you start moving. Keep holding forward until you get onto the hand (landing on one of the fingers). Jump again when you land and move to the teleporter. Its important to jump again because the the hand doesn't have a continuous platform, so you will fall down if you try to walk to the exit.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Cutscene skipping:
Swapping between animals or from Evo into an animal as a cutscene starts allows oyu to retain control of your character during the cutscene.



C_Sharp does two cool little jumps to save a bit of time not mentioned in this guide. See timestamp 47:48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

[IL] 4 Desert 05 - Whirlwind Tour

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:  
Only route: ~1:58  

Overview:
1) Do the Whirlwind Tour skip (WWT skip)  
2) Beat most of the level normally:
a)kill and be a fox  
b)cross the river using the boxes and head to the kangaroo  
c)kill and be the kangaroo  
d)cross the river using the boxes and head to the vulture  
e)kill and be a vulture, carry the kangaroo back to where you left the desert fox  
3)do a turbo launch to beat the level  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpc_jxc3BVE

Notes on the armed desert fox fight:  
If WWT skip gets you onto the fox platform, jump out of the camel and right back into it. This will recharge your energy and instantly rotate the cannon to the correct position. You should also rotate your camera to face the foxes so that the cannon doesn't rotate out of position again. Then blast the foxes while making sure the recoil doesn't push you off the platform. If you REALLY need to, you can fast recharge again if you run out of energy.  
If WWT skip gets you to the opposite shore, but not onto the fox platform. Walk clockwise around the platform to get up to it. As you approach the foxes, hold Z to aim at them, then blast em.  

Notes on the kangaroo fight:  
The optimal kangaroo fight is to climb the peak facing the kangaroo and shoot it a few times (no holding Z). After the 5th or 6th shot, the kangaroo will move forward to attack you. When this happens, run towards the water in the up-left direction. When you reach the water, turn around and shoot the kangaroo while face-tanking punches. The cliff will stop the kangaroo from running away.  
If you are having problems with the fight, a safe strat is to shoot the kangaroo until it charges you, then run down the cliff to the left. After the kangaroo falls down the cliff, jump back up it and shoot it from there. The kangaroo will not jump up to attack you so you are 100% safe.  

Crossing the river as the kangaroo:  
There are 3 ways to cross the river. First is the slow way where you jump from one shore to the second box, wait for the box to splash, then jump to the third box, wait for the box to splash, then jump to the opposite shore. The second method is the swag jump method where you jump from one shore all the way to the third box, barely making it onto the box and avoiding its splashing effect (this is the swag jump), then jumping from the third box to shore without delay. The third method is the short jumping method where you jump from one shore to the second box, spam A as you land so that you do a short jump to the third box before the splashing effect occurs. The short jump avoids the splashing effect on the third box, so you can do a full jump to the opposite shore without delay. The first method is slow but the swag jump and short jump methods are comparable. Do whichever you prefer.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XJZ89FX4Tk

Notes on the vulture fight:
The typical strategy for this fight is to punch one of the vultures off the edge of the cliff, then butt-stomp it as it tries to fly back up. When the vulture is off the cliff, it gets stuck against the wall, so butt-stomping is really easy. Alternatively, it is possible to permanently de-aggro the vultures, but we don't know how to do it.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Whirlwind Tour skip:    
This skip requires camera manipulation to position your turret cannon properly, proper movement before the skip starts so that you start the skip at the right time and location, proper movement during the trick, and then some luck on top of that. This trick may be frustrating at first, but it is absolutely necessary as it saves ~2 minutes, maybe more. You can fail the trick 10 times, maybe 15 times and still save time relative to not doing it. Don't get discouraged!
Starting the level, rotate the camera 135 degrees counterclockwise to point towards the nearby corner. Your turret cannon should have stopped rotating before you are able to move. If not, wait until it stopped. Move straight downward briefly, until the middle of the camel crosses the edge of the teleporter, then move straight down-left until you reach the edge of the shadow of the nearby power cell. At this point, rotate the camera 45 clockwise once and immediately start spamming A (while continuing to hold down-left). Right before you hit the opposite shore, switch to holding down on the analog stick. If you are successful in launching yourself upward, change directions to try moving towards the armed desert fox platform.
If you miss, you have two recommended options: 1) head back to the entrance teleporter and attempt the exact same setup as described above (remember to wait until your turret cannon has stopped rotating after pointing the camera at the corner) or 2) do Mcill's old setup.  
Mcill's old setup is to float in the water just to the left of the power cell and aligned with the corner of the shore by the entrance teleporter. Hold Z and aim at the corner of the level near the entrance teleporter, maybe a little to the right of the corner, its not an exact science right now. Let go of Z, wait until you are at the bottom of your floating oscillation, then start moving straight downward while spamming A.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_RM9U63Obw

In either scenario, if you succeed, you may end up directly on the armed desert fox platform (best) or on the ground below the platform (worst). It MIGHT be faster to attempt the skip again if you end up below the platform but given how inconsistent the trick is, its best to just walk around until you get up to the foxes (described above). A third possibility is that you land just on the edge of the platform but not quite on top of it. If this happens, don't give up; keep walking in the appropriate direction to make sure you don't fall down and keep shooting cannonballs. Each cannonball should push you up a bit more until you've made it completely onto the platform.  
The initial strat we have is pretty good in terms of speed and consistency, but it might not be the best one for you specifically or even in general. If you want to take a crack at your own setups, go for it! Its an SSSV speedrunning ritual to attempt to improve this trick  

Turbo launch:  
As the vulture, place a small animal (eg. armed desert fox) on top of a larger animal (eg. kangaroo), then start flying and push B quickly after. You will grab the large animal, causing the small animal to push into your hitbox and making the game force you upward as a result. The timing for this trick is pretty lenient: you can roll your thumb from A onto B at a pretty casual pace and it will work. There seems to be certain spots where this trick works and certain other spots where it doesn't work. One place were it is confirmed to work in Whirlwind Tour is on the triangle-shaped slope edge right beside where the kangaroo is killed.  



C_Sharp has a different WWT skip setup that some may find helpful, additionally, he baits the kangaroo out further which saves some time not having to fly as far for the turbo launch. See timestamp 49:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

[IL] 4 Desert 06 - Shifting Sands

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Any%
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Route options and benchmark times:
only route: ~1:42

1) jump in the water and ride the river down to the main area
2) get to the kangaroo area by jumping on the TV
3) kill a kangaroo and be a kangaroo
4) bounce on the pillars to get to the one nearest the vulture
5) kill the vulture, jump from the pillar towards the vulture to swap into it
6) head to the exit and pillar squeeze to finish the level

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJzZhOhOLU

This level is pretty simple, but there are a few optimizations. First, you can avoid some damage by intermittently spin attacking as you move down the river. Its not a big deal and you probably don't have to do it but it feels good. Also, intermittently spin attacking while you walk is believed to make you move faster (see Sting In The Tail).

Notes on killing the vulture:
The vulture is very easy to kill. Just keep jumping and time your boomerang attacks according to your jumping. The proper time to throw is just a bit before you land. If the boomerang goes below the vulture while you are still moving up, you threw too early. If it goes below while you are moving back down, you threw too late. I don't think it's possible to have the boomerang go above the vulture.
The vulture takes 3-5 hits to kill. It seems random, so that's unfortunate.

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Pillar squeeze: 
Some levels in the desert have pillars around the teleporters that only the desert fox can fit through. The game expects you to use the vulture to carry a desert fox to the exit. Instead, if you exit a large animal like the vulture or the kangaroo and move onto the animals corpse as Evo (using the height you get from the exit), you can walk from the animal's corpse onto the teleporter.

[IL] 4 Desert 07 - Punch-up Pyramid

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All Categories
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Route options and benchmark times:  
5 round: ~6:40  
4 round: ~5:17  
no ACamel: ~4:33  
best: ~4:14  
These benchmark times don't represent route options, just highlight the differences between potential outcomes. For example, if you find you are getting 5 rounds consistently, then a good way to save 1m30s is to get consistent at 4 round punch-ups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_ulNQbe0Mo

We'll cover each fight individually, but there's a common theme between them all: accuracy and energy management. Because your attacks are limited by how much energy you have, punching as fast as possible does not benefit you. Think more in terms of the energy required to kill an animal. This energy is more than 100% of your B button ability energy, so you have to wait for it to recharge. This also means that if you miss a punch, the energy you spent doesn't go towards killing the animal. Furthermore, if you are at 100% energy, you aren't taking advantage of your ability-recharging, so you're losing time. Finally, punching too quickly can cause you to lose punching energy without actually throwing a punch. Pace your punches.  
Between fights (that is, between different animals and not different counts of the same animal, though similar rules apply), you will have to wait a long time and your energy will recharge to 100%. You would prefer to finish each fight with no energy left to punch.  

To summarize:  
1) Most importantly, never miss any punches  
2) Don't punch too fast  
3) Try not to be at full energy. As long as you're recharging, you're good  
4) Finish each fight with no energy  

As long as you're doing these things, you're going fast. The following discussions are simply to help you do these things.  

As a side note, 3-round Punch-up is hard to do without practice. The camel and super camel fight should be 1 rounds each without much trouble. The kangaroo fight is pretty hard to do in 1 round, but 2 rounds should be pretty easy to get and is respectable for beginners. Like all "boss" levels though, a minimum amount of practice is required to make sure you can even beat them consistently in the first place, but after that its not a big deal.  

Useless camel fight:  
Basically just charge forward so you can start punching (methodically) ASAP. Since the camel is really slow, you can easily chase it down. It's a pretty safe fight, but its attacks CAN do a bunch of damage, so pay attention. If you get close to death, bail and grab some energy. Its best to do this when you are low on energy because then you aren't technically wasting time (since you're still recharging energy).  
IMPORTANT: after the second down (the 7-count), you want to be facing the camel and standing still. As the camel gets back up, you'll enter the kangaroo's passive animation, which involves it punching. These punches do damage and don't cost any energy! #freetimesaves. Keep passive punching until the camel gets out of range, then continue fighting as normal. I think the best passive punching we've seen so far is 7 hits, 3-4 is more likely.  
An ideal fight is finished with 30 seconds left (or maybe even 31)  

Super camel fight:  
First of all, attempt the "ACamel". Start under the super camel so that it spawns on top of you and teleports to the side of the ring. When it teleports, run to its final position and try to push it out of bounds. If successful, the camel will be stuck and you can punch it freely without having the camel fight back or teleport. The best way to kill the camel if you get ACamel is to use regular punches to get the first down, then use 5-6 passive punches followed by regular punches to get the second down, then all 7 passive punches followed by regular punches on the third down.  

If you fail the ACamel, then use the following advice. This fight is even easier than the useless camel fight in terms of not dying, but maybe a little harder to do optimally. It's very safe because all you have to do is make sure that the cannon is pointed away from you and you're good to go. When the camel teleports, it will always teleport to the other side of you (or rather to the other side of where you were when it started the teleport). Use this knowledge to control the camel and to predict where it will go. Start the fight by making the camel teleport to the nearby edge of the ring so you can start punching it faster. After that, just punch it a bunch while avoiding the cannon. You should be able to kill it before it teleports again. After each down, the camel will teleport again, but each time it is possible to down the camel before it teleports a second time.  

Kangaroo fight:  
Start the fight behind the kangaroo. This way you can punch it a few times while it is turning around to attack you. After this initial plan, you're kinda on your own. Here are some guidelines though:  
1) You really want to dodge all of the kangaroos attacks. Jumping is a good way of doing this.  
2) You want to get the kangaroo into corners so you can punch it easier  
3) After the 7-count, you can passive punch the kangaroo similar to the useless camel.  
Practicing this fight a lot will help you understand how the kangaroo moves and how to manipulate it to move where you want and to predict where it will go when that manipulation fails.  

---------------
Techniques
---------------
Passive punching:  
The kangaroo will start punching when its idling animation begins. These punches don't cost any B-button energy and actually cause damage!  



Here you can witness ACamel at work! Just as a side note, I really like the way he bullies the useless camel and id recommend trying it out. Time Stamp 53:03

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

[IL] Big Celebration Parade

--------
Any%
--------

Route options and benchmark times:  
best route: ~5:51  
"beginner with a plan" route: ~7:04  
"beginner with no plan" route: ~infinity (please make a plan)  

It is recommended not to attempt a faster route until your time is close to the benchmark time for the current strats you are using. If you are using faster strats and your time is still slower than the benchmark for a route with worse strats, it is recommended that you simplify your route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrcAj_zhC48

Edit by Crackerbean:
There are 7 animals in each spawn. for the dogs/foxes this includes the hostile flying animals(2 flying dogs, 1 flying fox)
Roaming Animals: 2 flying dogs, 1 flying fox, 2 frogs, 1 sheep, 1 ram, 1 king rat, 1 rat, 1 mouse.(10 total)

¤¤¤ Thanks to a new glitch we can make the game think we are in Punch up Pyramid while playing this level. what this does is it causes none of the text to appear during the level and at the end of the level, saving a lot of time. To do this (frame perfect?) glitch you must hover over Punch up Pyramid on the level select screen and push right and A on the same frame. you will know if you did it correctly because you will get text that says "BORING! You fight like my gran. YER OUT" at the start of BCP. you can attempt this as many times as you like.

If you want to put in practice on this level it is important to note that you need to do the level select glitch. The reason for this is that at the start of a completed Big Celebration Parade it will tell you the old "Station Record" after the roaming animals spawn. This text keeps you from moving but still allows the roaming animals to move, therefore throwing off their positions.

Do not select this level normally, instead perform the level select glitch from Punch-up Pyramid. This replaces the BCP text with PuP text and prevents Dan from talking at the end, saving ~20-30s. If you get the glitch, you'll know because the text will be weird. If you fail, don't worry, you can attempt again after the evil brain segment

Starting the evil brain segment, aim for the doors openings as you walk. Also, try to jump over the doors that open top-down to get over them faster. Whenever an Earth-shrinking cutscene starts, push A to skip it. Kill the brain by holding the B button. After the second text box post-brain kill, you can pause and restart the level and push A to skip the crashing cutscene. If you failed the level select glitch, exit the level instead of restarting it. Retry the level select glitch until it works. It's 100% worth it.

The main segment is, of course, more important than the evil brain section. Its also very hard. In order to play this level well, you need to understand how it works. This will be described first.

How it works:
When you start the level, there will be some "roaming animals" running around. Unlike other animals, which stand still until they see you, these roaming animals move around in a fixed route. Because they move, they can be hard to find, so it is important to kill them fast and, if you miss them, understand what their routes are so that you can find them later.
There is one roaming fire fox. It flies clockwise around the level in an oval shape, so it does not fly around the frog area or the opposite corner to the frog area.
There are two flying dogs. They stay really close to each other (unless airpanes bump into them and cuase them to desync) and fly loops around the buildings close to the shore. These dogs only fly low enough to kill from the ground when they are near the frog area. They also fly loops around the tallest buildings near the mouse area, so you can kill them if you jump onto those buildings (really slow, but if you have to, then fine).
There is a roaming rat that runs counter-clockwise around outside of the level. It will drop mines and run away from you when it sees you.
There is a roaming king rat that runs clockwise around the outside of the level. It runs away from you and farts when it sees you.
There is a roaming walking mouse that hangs out between the frog area and the dog area.
TECHNICALLY, there are two roaming frogs and some roaming sheep/rams, but they aren't hard to find and have never caused anyone any problems.

In addition to these roaming animals, the rest of the animals spawn in sets. The trigger to make them spawn is killing enough other animals. This trigger is met when you hear the howling noise in the background music. Furthermore, you must not be standing in their spawn areas. If you are, you need to leave before they will appear. The animals will spawn in this order: sheep, mice, frogs, rats, dogs, foxes. You can find out exactly where they spawn by playing the level yourself since describing locations in this level is kinda tricky unless you reference the animals that spawn there. The exact number of animals remaining to spawn each set of animals is not known because it doesn't really matter. The only exception is the dogs, which spawn when there are 23 animals remaining. This is important because the optimal route kills the dogs before killing the rats, so you need to make sure the dogs actually spawn first.

The optimal route for this level:
Coming out of the space station, head straight toward the frog area, rotating your camera away from the city to avoid lag. The roaming flying dogs will be circling the blue building just as you reach it. Jump up and kill both of them. Body-block them to buy yourself the time you need to do this.
Whether you succeed or fail, head toward the center of the map and kill the nearby frog. Cut to the left toward the frog area and kill the second frog and the mouse. Watch for the approach of the roaming king rat coming from the shoreline. Wait until it is in a position to run directly into the wall when it sees you, then kill it. As you are doing so or immediately after, the roaming rat will come in from the opposite direction that the king rat came. Kill it too, then jump on the nearby building and face the shore. The roaming flying fox will approach. Jump up just a little bit to body-block it and try to kill it (just like the flying dogs, you might fail, but you have to try). If everything went well, all of the roaming animals apart from 2 sheep should be dead now.
Move to the middle of the level and start killing the sheep (9 total including the 2 roaming ones), then travel in a clockwise direction around the level, killing as you go, moving from sheep (9) -> mice (7) -> frogs (7) -> dogs (7) -> rats (7) -> foxes (7). If you don't spawn the dogs in time, you'll have to criss-cross and do rats -> dogs -> foxes.

Understanding how this level works will help you find and kill the animals fastest. Make sure you know where to go and when to go there. Make sure you know the paths of the roaming flying animals. Keep track of the roaming animals you've killed (and the rest of the animals too, really). Pay attention and play well. Also, if you need health, GET IT!

Finally, mcill made this picture mostly as a joke, but people were all like "you should add this to the guide", so here it is. The "best route" isn't even correct anymore.

http://imgur.com/a/qr9jF

Help with killing rocket dogs and king rats:
These animals run away from you and are faster than you, so you can't just charge them. Control their movement so that they run straight into walls. For king rats (and regular rats I guess), you can deaggro them if you walk up against the side of the level. From there you can kill them without having them run away.



2026: Heres C_Sharp's clear and route of it. It INCLUDES level select glitch in action. Note that when he travels over the water as evo, he boosts instead of swims. time stamp 57:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoGaN1TTXI

Any% tutorial 2021

I mean, its still super hard for me to keep tutorials up to date. I'm pretty much doing it alone and there's not a lot of people looking to learn this game. If you ARE trying to learn this game, I'm behind you 100% and am super stoked about it. The tutorials are worth the effort when they help even just one person.

That said, here's a quickie full-game tutorial for the strats as of May 2021. PLEASE look at the IL tutorials if you are hoping to learn a specific level. Those resources are very helpful whereas this video only scratches the surface. Its just easier to shoot off a full run quick guide even if the actual strats aren't described in detail. Also, PLEASE consider the safe strats outlined in the IL tutorials, they aren't significantly slower than the risky strats and odds are you'll go faster by playing safer, not trickier. If you need further help I'm always happy to help with specific info. Just pop into the discord or my twitch stream or something and we can go over whatever you'd like.

Also, dont learn anything until youve learned BCP, Punch-up Pyramid, Evo's Escape, Walrace 64, and Give-A-Dog-A-Bonus. Saving 2 seconds in any random level isnt worth losing minutes to these levels.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1038228839

Compendium of useless glitches and stuff

------------------
Out of Bounds
------------------
You can get out of bounds in:
Smashing Start: You can get out of bounds and access the "cutscene area" by pushing a box onto the small hill with the speaker above it, then using that box to jump onto the speaker as the dog. Bark and jump to do a speaker jump that brings you out of bounds. if you move toward the waterfall and hold Z while looking away from the level, you can see the "cutscene area" and jump down into it.

Honeymoon Lagoon: Using a box (from the pond, brought up using the elevator) and a spring sheep, you can jump on the tree at the top of the elevator and then onto a nearby higher platform. From there you can jump to other inaccessible areas. This isn't exactly out of bounds, but close enough.

The Engine Room: As the racing fox, head into the cave and reach the 3 computers blocking your path. Turn around and boost into the diagonal wall at the S-bend in the cave. Now you're stuck, great.

Fat Bear Mountain: Do the FBM jump to get on the roof of the bear cave, then hug the wall and move in the direction of the teleporter. For some reason, the perpendicular wall is way off in the distance and you can just roam around in space for fun.

Stinky Sewers: Get the dog (not the racing dog, the regular one) into the King rat's layer. Jump on top of the toilet and then position yourself against the toilet tank in such a way that the dog is vertical. From there hold forward and jump, just like a gorilla jump. This gets you into the walls. You can follow the walls around the place and if you get to the edge of the level you can walk around there. Its pretty cool, but you can't get back in bounds.

Snow Joke: As the husky, head toward the switch that turns on the fan. Face that switch. Turn it on and move clockwise around the teleporter platform until you are near the first platform you see. Watch that platform. When it finishes floating up, it teleports counterclockwise a bit before doing its normal thing. If you are waiting at that spot when it teleports, you get blasted off into the distance and out of bounds.

Ice 'n' Easy Does It: You know that wall we fly over after collecting the first head? Just fly onto it instead and explore around there.

Penguin Playpen: Basically just do a turbo launch with a penguin and a ski husky and then fly over the walls.

Pinball Blizzard: From the top of the central area..the plateau? Sure. From there you can fly to the edges of the level where there are small areas to walk around on.

Hoppa Choppa: This entire level is out of bounds and you can get there very easily in almost any way you choose. Watch a 99% run to see one of the easier ways.

Jungle Japes: There is an area of the waterfall (on the left side as you approach it) that has invisible water tiles all the way up to the top. You can find the right location by swimming around slowly as the hyena. When you know where the tiles are, you can jump/swim up it as the fish and then jump to the water above the fall, then out of bounds.

Jungle Jumps: As the racing turtle or biker hyena, you can ramp off some of the jumps and onto the wall, then cruise around the level from there.

Fun In The Sun: Turbo launching lets you go weird places. Just turbo launch and fly where you want to go.

Hot Cross Buns: Turbo launching lets you go weird places. Just turbo launch and fly where you want to go.

Whirlwind Tour: If you enter the cheat code that flips your camera upside-down and gives you infinite ability energy (then enter it again to fix your camera but keep infinite energy), you can blast out of bounds as the cannon camel, sometimes, somehow. Turbo launching might also let you go weird places. Try turbo launching and flying where you want to go.

Shifting Sands: After you fall down to the main area of the level, the game REALLY doesn't want you to get back up, I consider getting back up to be out of bounds. Just do a turbo launch near the waterfall and try to get up. Once you're up there, you can't fly very high and the vulture behaves very strangely. You can also get crushed by nothing. It's kinda fun.

Punch-up Pyramid:

---------------------
TV game freeze
---------------------
If you bonk into a TV to start the animal stats cutscene and pause on the right frame, the game freezes. I don't know what the right frame is or why you would want to do this, but, well...there it is (JeffGoldblum.jpg).

-----------------------
Delayed level exit
-----------------------
If you pause the game on the same frame that you step on the teleporter and exit the level, you store the level ending trigger or something. If you then select a level with no starting teleporter (Smashing Start, Give-A-Dog-A-Bonus, or Punch-up Pyramid), the level will exit soon after you start it. This might count as beating Smashing Start, which isn't helpful, but it counts as a loss for GADAB and Punch-up because you didn't collect the level trophy.

-----------------------
Level select glitch
-----------------------
If you change levels and select a level at the same time (approx.), the game will tell you you are on the first level, but you will be playing the second level. This is used in runs, but only for its text-swap effect on BCP. Otherwise, useless.

------------------------
Level-specific stuff
------------------------

The Engine Room:
Access the bridge switch as Evo: Go to the three computers in the cave and back into the corner of two of them, then jump out of the fox. You can walk to the bridge switch and maybe even make it back, but you cant jump back into your animal. Now you're stuck, great.

Stinky Sewers:
If you position the racing dog (possibly any animal?) against the door to the teleporter room just right and jump out of it, you can clip into the teleporter room. The teleporter does not activate and the door does not open and you cannot clip back out...even if you turn on the switches.

Give-A-Dog-A-Bonus:
If you start rat-o-matic, then exit the level while the starting teleporter still has the electricity stuff still around you, and then start GADAB, the electricity effect can be seen on the ground ahead and a little to the right of where you start (near the turret at the center of the level). Other levels into GADAB might work but if they do, the effect's location is somewhere else and we haven't bothered to find them. Might have something to do with where the teleporter location is in the level you started with.

Evo's Escape:
If you end the initial cutscene as evo is jumping into the chameleon, similar to a cutscene skip, you will spawn a chameleon at the start of level that you are in control of. It's been used once to kill Evo before the autoscroller ends, but it counts as a loss, probably because you didn't get the trophy.

Silver Evo Tutorial 2018

Note: This guide is very likely highly out of date. I will verify the route and update accordingly soon™

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH BOTH ANY% AND 99% BEFORE READING THIS

Levels marked with an asterisk ( ¤ ) have different options you can do for beginner/expert routes. mainly because of the biker hyena jump in jungle jumps as this is a hard trick and excludes 1 power cell from the beginner route.

Smashing Start: 15 POWER CELLS: same as 99% without the trophy, no need to cutscene skip if you kill and be sheep before grabbing energy. (This makes the teleporter cutscene very short and you are allowed movement when the camera starts moving away from the teleporter) 

¤Have A Nice Day!: (15)14 POWER CELLS: Do 99% strats until you finish herding sheep. cross the bridge and get the power celll on the right (there is a jump you can do instead of crossing the bridge to save a little bit of time). circle behind the dog house, get a power cell here then jump into the water and get another power cell here. go over to the levitating rocks and do a precise jump to get the power cell by the teleporter (or you can get the one on the other side of the mouse house later if this jump is too hard). climb the rocks, get the power cell by the TV then finish the level with the mouse (cutscene skip). (If you are bad at the FBM jump you can get the final power cell in this level before getting the mouse)

Honeymoon Lagoon: 11 POWER CELLS: Cutscene skipping the machine is not necessary, it is very hard to get ahead a cycle even when you do it. grab all 4 power cells at the machine, grab the 2 cells by the foxes, 2 on the way up the hill, 1 by the tree at the top, and 2 on the towers whilst jumping to the teleporter. 

The Battery Farm: 0 POWER CELLS: Yup just do any% route. 

The Engine Room: 2 POWER CELLS: Use any% strats and grab the power cells in your path. 

¤Fat Bear Mountain: (5)4 POWER CELLS: Go to where the sheepis (the one that jumps across to the switches in 99%), jump across the small gap to grab the power cell and continue straight to the power cell behind the tree. From here just continue through the level like any%, grabbing the power cell by the switch and the power cell in the cave. (Pro route gets 5 power cells by doing the FBM jump first, same cycle is possible, just much tighter and requires a fast setup for the jump)

Rocky Hard Place: 11 POWER CELLS: Turn off the gravity and jump to get the 2 power cells at the end of the 99% route, then go to the island with 5 power cells, Ride the Elevator and then 99% from this point until you hit switch to raise platforms(you can skip the one at the top of the hill by the tree and bridge if you dont need it), then finish level. 

Stinky Sewers: 4 POWER CELLS: Same as any%, just be sure to get the 2 power cells in the king rats lair and the 2 power cells in the teleporter room. 

Rat-O-Matic: 1 POWER CELL: Grab the power cell underneath the where you get shot out of the pipe  

Snow Joke: 3 POWER CELLS: Any% route, should be very obvious which 3 you grab.

Ice 'n' Easy Does It: 14 POWER CELLS: Get all power cells except the last one in the 99% route. It doesnt make much difference when you grab the ones in the igloo room, just do it efficiently. 

Penguin Playpen: 4 POWER CELLS: any% strats grabbing the only 4 power cells directly in between the seagull and the teleporter. 

Pinball Blizzard: 6 POWER CELLS: kill king penguin and immediately start jumping up the towers, 99% strats until piano but don't grab the power cell directly after the third note, grab 3 power cells in teleporter room. 

Hoppa Choppa: 12 POWER CELLS: 2 in first room, jump straight over wall to chopper bunny, continue with 99% strats for the rest of the level (1 power cell normally collected with the King Penguin is now collected with the chopper bunny, this one is after the husky on the flat ice near where the OOB clip in 99% is)(IGNORE the red beam room) 

Something Fishy: 7 POWER CELLS: 1 at the start before jumping the wall, 1 on the other side of the wall, continue towards cod escape, DETOUR to the right for the 2 power cells by free tour camera, continue with any% strats, collecting 1 power cell just outside of cod escape room and 2 power cells on the way to the second fish tank.

Jungle Japes: 1 POWER CELL: Any% route grabbing power cell by the teleporter as the piranha.

Jungle Doldrums: 2 POWER CELLS: use any% strats, grab 2 power cells near parrot

Swamp of Eternal Stench: 8 POWER CELLS: use 99% strats ignoring the power cell next to the trophy. once you get to the gorillas you should have 6 power cells, the last 2 are on the rope and in the poop swamp below it on the way to the exit. 

Weight For It!: 11 POWER CELLS: Collect 2 under the tree, then 2 by the logs while waiting for B energy, get 1 power cell on the mushroom on your way back with the box to get the elephant out of tree. Roar gorilla to back wall(to parrot area) and get the power cell here, jump up and collect 2 power cells (do not kill parrot) then head towards the switch (The one in the water is extra incase you missed one earlier in the run). try to make sure you get the piranha onto land so you can roar it across to the finish. Collect the power cell near the Hump Jump whilst roaring the piranha, 2 power cells in water by teleporter with piranha 

¤Jungle Jumps: (11)12 POWER CELLS: Very straight forward level. 2 at start with turtle, kill hyenas, 3 by first key, 1 before key jump, 4 by second key in tree, 1 by gorillas, 1 on the way to the teleporter after third key. (Pro route gets 11 power cells, and does Biker Hyena Launch)

Fun In The Sun: 11 POWER CELLS: do 99% strats for first room(ignore first 3 power cells) and any% strats for second room (make sure you grab the power cell next to the last valve before heading towards teleporter) 

Hot Cross Buns: 11 POWER CELLS: 2 at vulture statue, 2 by first switch and speaker, 3 by second switch(hit box extension), 1 by third speaker, 3 by teleporter. 

Sting In The Tail: 13[¤14¤] POWER CELLS: Get 4 by the kangaroos, 1[¤hopefully 2¤] under the bridge, kill vultures now, jump towards final 2 scorpions in 99% and collect the power cells in this area heading towards the exit as you would in 99%. skip the power cell in the corner. [¤If you grab the extra power cell under the bridge then you can skip one in the next few levels! probably the last one in WWT or the first one in SS¤]

Borassic Park: 3 POWER CELLS: any% strats grabbing 2 power cells under the rib cage and 1 on the way to the kangaroo next to the little dino dude. 

Whirlwind Tour: 7 POWER CELLS: any% strats grabbing the 2 power cells next to desert foxes, 2 right after getting the kangaroo and 3 next to vultures (one below on the tiny pillar near the scorpion).

¤Shifting Sands: 13 POWER CELLS: 99% strats grabbing all but the one down the river (ride the box) or the power cell under the sand next to the trophy. ¤¤(the one you get from riding the box can be grabbed as a back up power cell just in case you missed one somewhere in the run)¤¤

Teleporter Animation Optimization 

So when you start a level in SSSV it often lags the game because the teleporter animation itself has a lot of particles and such with the rest of the level being in view, it is usually enough to make it a couple seconds slower overall to load into the level. This is more or less a guide on how to shave seconds/fractions of seconds off your runs. This isn't fully exhaustive of all lag reduction strats obviously, but only the ones concerning the teleporter animation as you are only allowed to control the camera during this time, so you might as well learn how to save as much time there as you can. One note; Smashing Start, Give A Dog A Bonus, Evo's Escape, Punch up Pyramid, and Big Celebration Parade do not have the same teleporter entrance animation like the rest of the levels (or you don't have control over it) so I didn't include those as there are no strats for those levels.

Also, in here TA means "teleportation animation" mainly referring to the scanning cage type thing holding the animal in place. "CLeft", etc just refers to the various C buttons on the n64 controller, if it says "2-4 CLeft" that means that from the default position of the camera, if you press C left 2, 3, or 4 times then that resulting camera position will not lag the game, so it is the position you are aiming for. Even if you move the camera to these spots, it may try to move back to behind the animal, so you may have to press CLeft or CRight many times to keep that angle.

Sometimes it's nice to hold Z at the start of the level for some levels so for the ones I see Z used often I will time those but usually holding Z slightly lags the game during the teleporter animation. So it's good to know the potential difference there. Some levels lag extra hard when using Z so generally I would avoid it except for rocky hard place, fat bear mountain, and penguin playpen as there is actually good reason to hold Z at the beginning of those levels.

Anyways... here are the strats:

-

Have A Nice Day!: default 9.4s

optimal strat: 2-4 CLeft/CRight 7.1s

-

Honeymoon Lagoon: default 8s

optimal strat: 3-4 CRight + 2 CDown 7.0s

holding Z: 9.0s

-

Battery Farm: default 7.3s

optimal strat: 3-4 CLeft 7.0s

holding Z: 7.2s

-

Engine Room: default 7.1s

optimal strat: default then CDown after TA ends  7.0s

-

Fat Bear Mountain: default 7.0s

optimal strat: default 7.0s

holding Z: 7.1s

-

Rocky Hard Place: default 6.9s

optimal strat: Hold Z 6.9s

holding Z: 6.9s

-

Stinky Sewers: default 9.1s

optimal strat: default 9.1s

-

Rat-o-Matic: default 9.5s

optimal strat: default 9.5s

-

Snow Joke: default 9.0s

optimal strat: 4 CLeft 2 CDown 7.0s

-

Ice 'n' Easy Does It: default 6.9s

optimal strat: any 6.9s

-

Penguin Playpen: default 7.1s

optimal strat: 2-3 CRight 6.9s

holding Z: 7.1s

-

Pinball Blizzard: default 7.0s

optimal strat: 2 CDown 6.9s

-

Hoppa Choppa: default 7.4s

optimal strat: any 7.4s

-

Something Fishy: default 9.9s

optimal strat: default 9.9s

-

Walrace 64: default 8.5s

optimal strat: default then CDown after TA ends 8.4s

-

Jungle Japes: default 7.0s

optimal strat: 4-6 CRight 6.9s

-

Jungle Doldrums: default 8.2s

optimal strat: 2-4 CLeft 8.1s

-

Swamp Of Eternal Stench: default 7.4s

optimal strat: 1-3 CRight 7.2s

-

Weight For It!: default 9.4s

optimal strat: 3-5 CLeft 7.0s

-

Jungle Jumps: default 7.0s

optimal strat: any 7.0s

holding Z: 7.1s

-

Fun In The Sun: default 7.2s

optimal strat: 3-4 CLeft/CRight 7.0s

-

Hot Cross Buns: default 7.9s

optimal strat: 3-4 CLeft/CRight 7.5s

-

Sting In The Tail: default 7.4s

optimal strat: 2-4 CLeft 7.0s

-

Borassic Park: default 7.1s

optimal strat: default 7.1s

-

Whirlwind Tour: default 9.5s

optimal strat: mash CDown while level loads, then 4-5 CLeft 7.0s

-

Shifting Sands: default 7.1s

optimal strat: default 7.1s

-

The total difference between all the strats and none of the strats is 12.4s.

The main levels to care about are Have A Nice Day!, Honeymoon Lagoon, Snow Joke, Weight For It!, Hot Cross Buns (needed for route anyway), Sting In The Tail, and Whirlwind Tour if you want to save substantial time.

The History of SSSV Speedruns (WIP)

Zee Legacy/Historical Routes

Smashing Start
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mitiltwJtcQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIxyRj-vG3I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfj4hrlerBg

Name	Autor
[Full Game Tutorials] START HERE	mcill 6 months ago
[HOW] to learn the game	mcill 4 years ago
[IL] 1 Europe 01 - Smashing Start	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 02 - Have A Nice Day!	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 03 - Honeymoon Lagoon	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 04 - The Battery Farm	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 05 - The Engine Room	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 06 - Fat Bear Mountain	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 07 - Rocky Hard Place	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 08 - Stinky Sewers	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 09 - Rat-o-matic	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 1 Europe 10 - Give-a-dog-a-bonus	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 01 - Snow Joke	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 02 - Ice 'n' Easy Does It	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 03 - Penguin Playpen	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 04 - Pinball Blizzard	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 05 - Hoppa Choppa	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 06 - Something Fishy	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 2 Arctic 07 - Walrace 64	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 01 - Jungle Japes	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 02 - Jungle Doldrums	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 03 - Swamp of Eternal Stench	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 04 - Weight For It!	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 05 - Jungle Jumps	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 3 Jungle 06 - Evo's Escape	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 01 - Fun In The Sun	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 02 - Hot Cross Buns	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 03 - Sting In The Tail	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 04 - Borassic Park	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 05 - Whirlwind Tour	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 06 - Shifting Sands	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] 4 Desert 07 - Punch-up Pyramid	mcill 6 months ago
[IL] Big Celebration Parade	mcill 6 months ago
Any% tutorial 2021	mcill 5 years ago
Compendium of useless glitches and stuff	mcill 9 years ago
Silver Evo Tutorial 2018	Crackerbean 4 years ago
Teleporter Animation Optimization	C_Sharp 2 years ago
The History of SSSV Speedruns (WIP)	mcill 5 years ago
Zee Legacy/Historical Routes	Sha_lightning 4 years ago