100% Route Brief

Howdy! After doing some work I've decided to publish my current method for completing the game 100%. This will only be a surface-level overview but I'll elaborate on certain details if I feel they're needed. I'll upload a deeper look at the route once I begin to really master it. As of 3/5/2021, the current strategy is as follows:

**Part 1: Flosante**
The start of the route is very straightforward. To begin, you simply play all the dungeons in order and leave once you've collected everything. 
*Items: Map A, Map A-1, Proximity Mine, Hover, Life Up*

**Part 1.5: Impact Wave**
I believe this part could be optional, depending on the player. I find that having Impact Wave as early as possible makes the rest of the game easier. Therefore, after leaving Flosante, take a detour through Planetoids A-1, A-3 and B-4 *before* (ha) heading into Montoj.
*Items: Map A-3, Hexa Missiles, Map D-1, Map B-4*

**Part 2: Montoj**
This is also pretty linear if you know where to go. Don't bother with the grotto on the right just yet. After defeating Gathervira go back up the mountain and talk to Gonbei. When finding the coins, start by heading west and gathering them in a counter-clockwise direction. Once you return to the east side of the planet, the remaining coins can be acquired in any order, although I believe the grotto should be kept for last. Remember to *return* to Gonbei before leaving Montoj forever (I messed this up once and ended up earning myself a two-hour Any%). 
ALSO keep in mind that Jason can't pick up items while he's invulnerable during a counter. If you find yourself in a dungeon with fewer keys than you thought you had, that's probably why.
*Items: Map B, Map B-1, Map B-3, Map C-1, Shift-up Attacker, Recoil Jump, Key 1 (to Area C), Emblem Kuebiko*

**Part 2.5: Energy Guard**
Another optional section. I tank a lot of damage and having Wave is important for completing dungeons quickly, so I take this detour to Planetoid B-3 before moving on.
*Item: Energy Guard*

**Part 3: Immigration Ship L-229**
No surprises here. I prefer to do the first dungeon at the start of the level although you could probably save it for the end if you wanted. 
*Items: Map C, Map C-2, Burn Spark, Key 2 (to Area D), Key 3 (to Area E)*

**Part 3.5: Planetoid C-2**
You can hit up this planet on your way to Stranga or not. All remaining planetoids are going to be completed during part 8 so it's completely up to you. This is the final optional section.
*Item: Life Up*

**Part 4: Stranga**
Stranga is a little more open in its design but as long as you approach it systematically you won't have to worry about missing anything. I prefer to start at the top and work my way clockwise when gathering the fruit. Use the Seed Carry technique to make the two seed rooms faster. Do Not Forget to talk to Kanna a second time after she gives Eve medicine. You will have to leave and re-enter the room to trigger the Flosante quest.
After Leaving Stranga there's a very consistent method for entering all the Area E planetoids first-try. You go through them in descending order.
*Stranga Items: Map E-1, Map E-2, Map E-3, Drill Smasher, Repulsion Upper, SP Up, Life Up*
*Planetoid Items: [E-1] Map E, Map B-2, Life Up; [E-2] Map C-2; [E-3] Key 4 (to Area F-1)*

**Part 5: Divido Desert**
Divido can be pretty confusing. Although we'll cross this very section on our way to Area G, it is important that you pick up all available items on *this* run. The one item to skip is the Absolute Comet in the dungeon far east.
*Items: Map F, Map F-1, Map A-2, Key 5 (to Area F-2)*

After leaving Divido you'll want to hit up the following planetoids in this order:
- F-1
- C-4
- C-2
This will make the next parts smoother.
*Items: [F-1] Map D-3; [C-4] Flash Striker, SP Up; [C-2] Life Up*

**Part 6: Area D**
Complete the first three Planetoids here on your way to Area F-2. You'll get D-4 later. Remember that you have to complete D-2 to open the portal to F-2 so don't panic if you don't see it yet.
*Items: [Space] Map D-1; [D-1] Map D-2, Map D-4, SP Up; [D-2] Life Up, Vector Reflector; [D-3] Revol Buster, SP Up*

**Part 7: Divido Tundra**
There's an upgrade to the far west that's really easy to miss. I recommend going there first. Take note of the breakable rift on your way to Atom. Be sure to talk to Stein before leaving the planet.
*Items: Map F-2; Full Accel. Boost, Life Up* 

**Part 8: Errands** 
Now is the time to complete the rest of the planetoids. I recommend the following order:
- F-2 (DarkBlakki at TenjinES found a great way to skip this) *[SP Up]*
- D-4 *[Map D, Life Up]*
- A-2 *[Accel Charger]*
- Flosante *[Fruit]*
- B-1 *[Flash Sphere]*
- B-2 *[Reactive Comet, Life Up]*
- Ship L-229 *[Ship Part]*
- C-1 *[Map C-3, Auto Cluster]*
- Stranga *[Emblem Eir]*
- C-3 *[Torch Bomb]*
- Divido Tundra *[Emblem Atom]*

**Part 9: Digrawler**
After getting the emblem from Stein make your way towards the arena in which you originally fought him. You'll come across that rift again but this time you'll break it and continue through the desert. Complete the dungeon there to get the last item before moving on to Digrawler. After defeating him, make your way to the desert's entrance and leave the planet.
NOTE: If you happen to die before reaching your first checkpoint, remember to talk to Stein again for the emblem!
*Items: Absolute Comet, Key 6 (to Area G)*

**Part 10: Boss Rush**
Complete the boss rush and enjoy being so over-powered!

**Part 11: Good Ending**
There is nothing to collect until Eve gets MA Andrea. After that, the upgrades are pretty simple, with the only real choice being the last two. I think the lower cave Life Up should be gotten before the Fred one.
*Items: Life Up (x4)*

Congratulations! You've completed a 100% run!

Burn Spark Techniques

Gaia-Sophia can do a fast long-jump by using the Burn Spark's momentum. This is done simply by using Burn Spark and jumping while the animation is playing and your directional inputs are neutral. This is called a Burn Jump. Pressing forward at any point during the jump cancels the technique and resets you to driving speed. Going backward will snap you in the opposite direction and your horizontal momentum will be greatly reduced.

Learn to resist the impulse to go backward while performing this trick. The key to stopping accurately is to move forward about two or three Sophia lengths before your destination, depending on your current hight. If you do the jump and hit the ground in neutral, Sophia will roll forward until her inertia is spent. Jumping about halfway through the animation will net you the most distance. Delaying your jump towards the end or even right after the animation will still carry you forward, although much more slowly. At the extreme end of the spectrum, you'll actually jump slower than driving speed. This does not effect jump height and it's still possible to short hop. 

When performing this trick, you have two options for maintaining speed: Burn Gliding and Burn Hopping. To Glide, you simply hover in the middle of a Burn Jump. This minimizes drag so you can maintain speed longer but it's very expensive in terms of SP. Burn Hopping is performed by jumping as soon as you land from a Burn Jump or Glide. A portion of your speed is lost each time but it is significantly less than what you would lose otherwise. The same control principles of Burn Jumping apply to these two evolutions.

Stranga is where this technique was developed and is a good place to practice is, particularly near the overworld arena or in the north seed room.

Correction: As it turns out, this was discovered a whole year ago and posted about in the forums. I never really paid attention to old forum posts because technique seemed way out of my league until recently, so I ended up figuring this out on my own anyway. With that said, Saenar deserves the credit for discovering it (although I would like to think I've refined it into a more useful strat).

Early Launch

I have no idea whether this trick will be useful in terms of speed but it is fun to look at!

If you jump onto a launchpad and you hit the Launch Button (X on Switch) as soon as it appears, but before you touch the ground, Sophia will halt in mid-air and go through the launch process from her current position. You can float about 1 Sophia high if you time it early enough!

I discovered this in the following clip: 
https://youtu.be/_ZBVkHFx3Hk?t=5623

Ladder Technique

Here's a basic trick for getting up and down ladders faster:

To go up, you simply press Jump and Up. You'll basically want to spam this. Although pressing Up and Jump simultaneously will work, it is somewhat inconsistent. You'll get better results if you flam them: Jump-then-Up or, more realistically, Jump-Up-Up. Unless Jason has reached the top of his arc, pressing Up a single time will not grab the ladder. Pressing it twice, however, will force a grab before he's peaked.

Going down is a bit trickier. Jason will die if he falls from a hight about two blocks higher than his own jump. He also falls very quickly, so falling down a ladder and catching yourself before dying is a real exercise in timing. Ideally, you want to fall the entire length of the ladder, catching yourself at the very last second, but this can be hard to do and even harder to practice. I recommend falling a series of shorter distances to let you build up your skill. To drop down, all you have to do is press Down and Jump. Catching yourself is easier this time around, since pressing Up at any time will get the job done. When you've reached the bottom of the ladder, or are at least close enough to fall without taking damage, perform one more drop to hit the ground. Climbing down and jumping sideways will waste time.

A good area to practice this is Planetoid C-2, the map of which is found in Dungeon-3 of Immigration Ship L-229. Dungeon-3 is found on the path to the boss Defend Them All. The pool on the second screen of the planetoid makes for a safe environment to practice falls, and the tall ladder gives you plenty of room to practice your ascent.

Rapid Fire (a.k.a. Double Binding)

You can drastically increase your rate of fire, both as Jason (in top-down only) and Sophia, by assigning your blaster to a shortcut. By alternating between the regular fire button and the shortcut, you can basically turbo through the game. Remember to mind the sprite limit!

As to whether this method is better than using a shortcut for an alternate weapon is currently unknown and may even depend on the run. In an Any%, this method is effective because you have so few subweapons and almost none of them are useful enough to keep on a shortcut. In my own 100% runs however, Impact Wave, Burn Spark, Grenades and S.A. Attacker are used often. I don't know that the time saved with Rapid Fire wouldn't be lost elsewhere. Try this technique out for yourself and post your thoughts in the forums.

Seed Techniques

This only appears after you fight Eir in Stranga but it's a lot of fun to do in casual play too! There are two techniques I'll discuss here, Seed Carry and Seed Juggle.

Seed Carrying is a quick way to use your blaster to move the seed diagonally upwards, as demonstrated in davidki's Any % run. It's a bit tricky to pull off, especially if you're not the fastest shooter, but you essentially fire at the seed point-blank and hover upwards at the same speed. Because you're shooting it forward, you must also hover forward to keep up. This saves time in reducing sub-weapon switching and positioning. 

Seed Juggling is more of a novelty. To juggle, you approach the seed and fire twice--again, point-blank--to get it in the air. Immediately, you lock diagonally up and fire to keep it there. You will need to keep forward to start it but once you have it going you don't necessarily need to maintain speed to keep it up (although you will still need to inch forward regularly). Some may find this easier to pull off than Carrying. Though it isn't the most optimal technique, it's still faster than the intended way of moving the seed. It requires a lot of horizontal room to do well, so the first seed room is the only practical place for it in a run (unless someone manages to pull it off in the future). The real value of the move is in how fun it is to do! Try for a long combo or try to see how high you can get it! 

The first seed room in Stranga (the one where the flower takes G-Sophia) is a good place to practice both of these.

Wall Stall

Here's a trick I discovered: While using Recoil Jump to cling to a wall, it is possible to slow your descent significantly by spamming the direction of the wall. The timing for this is pretty forgiving since you'll remain in place for a moment every time you re-cling to the wall. This technique could prove useful in Ship L-229 or in the fight against Atom. I estimate you can fall almost 4 times slower with this method!

Nome	Autore
100% Route Brief	feeline0 4 years ago
Burn Spark Techniques	feeline0 4 years ago
Early Launch	feeline0 4 years ago
Ladder Technique	feeline0 4 years ago
Rapid Fire (a.k.a. Double Binding)	feeline0 4 years ago
Seed Techniques	feeline0 4 years ago
Wall Stall	feeline0 4 years ago