Hello, I just began to practice speedrunning for this game. I've seen a couple of videos where the runner gets a 4th hit on Del Lago without ever dropping the harpoon, Del Lago just barely missing them to the left. However, 90% of the time I try this, it goes straight for me and knocks me out of the boat. What are the requirements/inputs needed for Del Lago to miss you?

I've looked over a couple of tutorials but all of them drop the harpoon and steer right after the 3rd hit..

Doing a good del lago is something that takes a lot of practice because of some tricky shots like that 4th one. A lot of movements and timings are pretty specific to be able to kill him with 10 hits before his second opportunity to dive. To my knowledge there is no really good tutorial for lago because it's pretty hard to explain every detail of it but the best thing you can do is watch streams of top runners and practice it a lot. When you practice (with anything really) don't just focus of the times you get it right, pay attention to when you did it wrong and try to understand where it went wrong and why. The more you understand what doesn't work, the more it will make sense overall. I'm happy to help people getting into the game so if you have any other questions down the line, you can always ask!

Additionally a little detail that helped me: If you play with the controller (in my case xbox 360 for pc) aiming with the d-pad moves the crosshair much faster than with the stick.

@SmileAndPatch I've found that's helpful, but well, the problem I'm having isn't landing the 4th hit, but rather not being knocked out of the boat by Del Lago after he resurfaces for the first time (and without dropping the harpoon that is)

I haven't done this specific strat myself since I just turn the boat around for the 4th hit, but I believe it has to do with aiming the harpoon to the right so you also get pulled to the right, then aiming left to hit him before you get staggered.

Naww, atleast from personal experience you simply cannot alter your movement while aiming an harpoon, even if you were to fire nothing at all and just hold right the entire time. I'm thinking that it's probably related to how much you steer right after firing the first harpoon to dodge the first pile of wood, but despite how much I try to mix it up I can't seem to find any consistent results.

I guess it's also worth pointing out that the scenarios where Del Lago misses you look completely different than the usual getting knocked out scenario. It doesn't seem that there's any inbetween; either your boat completely comes to a stop and you get hit, or the boat suddenly gains speed and del lago resurfaces somewhere else entirely, which is really confusing.

Still though, I really appreciate the help you guys have given so far! don't wanna sound like I'm just disregarding all advice, I am trying pretty much everything at this point lol

you shouldn't bother getting the 4th del lago hit or any extra, but just focusing on movement and trying to not crash the boat