This guide will be a compilation of everything I've learned so far from doing runs and researching this game.
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Mashing: It may not seem like it, but you need to be able to mash pretty well to get a good time in this game. Whenever you are using a multihit move such as Beam Gunner's X attack, you can mash buttons in order to do more damage with the move. in order to maximize damage you want to rotate your control stick as fast as you can as well as mash the A, X, Y, and B buttons (For me I just mash the A and Y buttons). You know you are doing max damage if you get 120 hits with Beam Gunner's X attack.
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20th Force Glitch: This glitch is the core of the speedrun. It allows for you to change a borg into another borg. You'll be using the glitch to turn your normal ninja into a Beam Gunner and your Revolver Gunman into a Samurai Shogun which are two the strongest and most flexible borgs in the game. Simply follow the guide or watch the videos of the runs to learn how to do this trick.
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Mutant borgs: You might be confused on what exactly Mutant Borgs are and why they are so important to the run. Well Mutant Borgs is an extension to the 20th force glitch. It allows you to basically "fuse" the attributes of two borgs together. One such example is giving bullet count of the Gatling Gunner (4 X attacks and 100 B attacks) into the Beam Gunner, making Beam Gunner easily the most powerful borg in the entire game imo. Just follow the Mutant Borg guide to make that monstrosity.
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Battle tips: I'll just put some assorted tips here. a) You can cancel your Beam Gunner X attack with your charged B attack, so be sure to charge up the B attack whenever you do Beam Gunner's X attack so if you miss you can cancel the animation. b) Utilize your R and L buttons when in combat! Whenever you shoot a killing blow to an enemy be sure to switch targets and continue attacking instead of having the game automatically switch targets when you kill an enemy. Also whenever your enemy is invulnerable always switch targets instead of waiting for it to get back up.
I am not really up to date on the current route, so you should watch Jaburo's run.
If I learn anything else worth mentioning for the run I'll put it in this guide.
