There's a third code in Freeman's Files. I got it back when I was running the game on stream. It's rare, but possible.

There's another thing I've noticed that seems rather interesting. On the mission "Freeman's Files," the code to the safe is randomized between three sets of numbers. One of those combinations can be 5-4-1. What makes this interesting is that it's the same code you use to access the door at the end of "Traitor In Our Midst," the mission that the Janzen Glitch happens on. From my experience, every time I get the 5-4-1 safe code, I get the Janzen Glitch later in "Traitor In Our Midst." So I wonder if these things are linked. Like maybe the game can't handle two keypads having the same code, so it goes a bit wonky or something. I noticed this back when I first started running the game. Thought it was something worth sharing.

Learned a couple new things tonight during my runs tonight. During the mission "A Man Without Power," the electrician has a line of dialogue he'll sometime skip. While doing the part where you have to wait for him to count to three to pull a switch, he'll sometimes skip the line, "On the count of three." It happens randomly. Out of the eight run attempts I've done tonight, he skipped this line during three of them.

Also, in the first mission of the game, when Lian is shooting at the ladder to make it drop down, she'll normally shoot at it three times. However, during a few of my runs, she'd only shoot twice. It makes me curious about what other little things like this there are in the game. If I find any more, I'll be sure to post about it.

Btw, I found a piece of movement tech in "Security Section D" that saves a little time. At the end of the vent you go through to get to the bomb area (where you found the ATL drop skip), there's a crate that has a Flak Jacket in it. You can access that crate from inside the vent, which opens the crate AND starts the cutscene at the same time. After skipping the cutscene, Gabe will be in the normal position he is at the end of the cutscene with the armor. This saves time manually exiting he vent (which is slow af), manually opening the crate, the time it takes to do the crate opening animation, and having to reorient Gabe after opening the crate. It saves at least 5 secs.

I don't use the armor during IL runs. But it has been hella helpful in Any%. I found it by accident in the same run I found that ladder softlock. I just forgot to say something about it.

So relearning my Any% Easy route has been a fun process. Most of it has been like riding a bike. After a 6 month break since your last ride, it can be a little nervous getting back on. But once you get going, the muscle memory kicks in. The only issue I've found is rerouting some of the newer strats and skips that've been found since I first started running the game back in March.

There are so many little movement strats I've found/thought of. Strats that have seemingly inconsequential influence on the time saved, but add up a lot over the run. For instance, I run to the side at the bottom of a ladder to avoid accidentally grabbing back onto it. Or doing rolls when falling off a box or a zipline. These little things are going to help me push the category to a sub 1hr.

I've spent the past couple nights doing attempts. My goal is to get as far as I can before I die (in the game lol). With the exception of a few places in the run, I refuse to reset unless Gabriel succumbs to the dreaded death. The exceptions are mostly in the first mission of the game. If I don't get the Spectre from the first enemy I dispatch, I reset. Or if I fuck anything up during the Lian escort at the end, I reset. Otherwise, I just want to push it as far as I can. So far, I've made it to the first Janzen mission without dying.

No matter how long it takes me, I will succeed. No matter how many Janzen Glitches I have to deal with, I won't give up. I quit running this category 6 months ago because I became frustrated. I kept getting the softlock, ending runs about 38mins in. And I knew I could push the time down, but I felt like the game just didn't want me to succeed. I've thought about the sub 1hr since.

I'm so happy I came back to the game. I wanted to leave the Any% category behind for a while. Just focus on IL runs and All Episode Missions runs. But the more I played, the more I thought about that Any% record. I love this game. I hold such fond memories of it from my teenage years. This is the only game I've found that has given me such a strong speedrunner urge. lol Dark Mirror was always there for me when I needed escape and happiness. So I want to do right by this game, and the excellent people who created it, and push it as far as I can.

This game CAN be broken. And the more we fiddle with it, the harder we push it to its limits, the more things we'll find hiding under the surface.

So if I'm right, if you reload while running to a "corner" at the top of a ladder, you can just fall down it instead of taking the ladder as normal. It's really hard to replicate. I've had it happen prob 10 times or so. It normally only happens if I'm running sideways or backwards.

Omg I meant to make a post about that, as well. I've noticed that glitch too. Usually I get it while reloading right before a ladder.

Just found a new softlock while running Any% Easy. I found it on the mission "Old Memories." When you climb the watchtower with the zipline, if you attempt to get onto the zipline while standing at the top of the ladder, you can make Gabe climb down the ladder while the animation of jumping onto the zipline happens. If you do this, you will be stuck at the top of the ladder, softlocked in place. You can move the camera, equip and reload weapons, or turn on/off the goggles. But you can't move up or down the ladder. I'm guessing that interrupting the animation of jumping onto the zipline with the animation of climbing down the ladder confuses the game into believing that you shouldn't be able to move since you're supposed to be on the zipline. It's an odd discovery. Finding it completely killed a good pace run I was on just a moment ago.

I'm guessing the digital/emu versions just have an increased chance of it happening. Out off 100 runs, I'd say I lose about 55 of them to the Janzen Glitch. At least I'll have that PB to work towards, as well. But that sub 1 hr is gonna happen. I just need to refresh myself on my route, and do some ammo rerouting for the new strats I use. I do attempts until I die, then restart the run. That way I'm constantly practicing from the start. The prob is gonna be the last 3 episodes. I've played them the least of all the other episodes.

Really?! I didn't think that was possible 🤔 I don't ever remember it happening on the PSP version. That's crazy.

I created the Janzen Glitch category as a sort of meme for myself. Since I play the emulated version of the game, which itself is based off the digital version, I have a very high chance of getting a run-ending softlock during the mission "Traitor In Our Midst." I call it Janzen Glitch. This glitch is only possible in the digital/emulated versions of the game. Which is what I play on. I'd originally quit running Any% because of this glitch killing so many of my runs. Since I'm now running Any% Easy again, I wanted a way to keep myself motivated. This way I'll always feel like I have an obtainable PB goal to work towards, and will feel more confident in my Any% attempts.

Sub 1hr is definitely possible now. With all the strats and skips we've found since my last Any% Easy PB, I know for sure I can do it. I'm not happy leaving a flawed and outdated run as my record. I want to push for as perfect a run as I can. I want to get that time as low as I can.

Soon, I'm gonna reroute this with the new strats we've found since. Sub 1 hr is def possible now.

With the shock glitch, it might be an emu/digital only thing. But since the Teresa skip is tied to enemy spawns, that should be present in all versions. Enemy spawn patterns should be hard coded into the game to work on the PSP and PS2 hardware. I actually updated the Teresa skip thread. If you don't mind, try it out on PS2 with the updated post I made, and let me know if you can get it. I miss having a PSP to try it on. 😪 I have a hard copy of the game, just no PSP or I'd try it myself.

UPDATE: So this trick is consistent. However, I was wrong about the timing of the skip. Instead of the door opening automatically, there will be only ONE enemy that spawns in the lab, then the door opens. So if you leave the flamethrower guy alive, you'll only have to kill one dude in the lab (he comes down off a zipline) instead of the normal four or five before the gate opens.

I'm currently working on Kreisler's Garden runs rn. This skip will be showcased when I post a run to the leaderboard.

In the mission "Matter's End," I came across a strange, yet really useful, glitch while fighting Singularity. After using an EDT dart on him, an animation would normally play of him being shocked before falling to the ground. But in some of my runs, this animation would bug out. Instead of him being shocked, the animation wouldn't play, and Singularity would just fall to the floor. This saves about one and a half seconds.

Idk what could be causing this. My original theory was that the animation would be cancelled by one of his goons shooting him. But it didn't make sense after a while. It would sometimes happen when his guards weren't firing their guns. So at the moment, I have no idea what causes this glitch to occur. It's useful, though. And full game viable. So finding a way to replicate it consistently would help lower the times of a few different categories.

I plan to get a better time after my shift at work tonight. So hopefully, this run won't stand long. lol

I need to unlock the SMAW to test how much faster it would be in Any%. 🤔 You've got some good strats here.

Nice! Good use of the fire skip! But you may be able to improve it with an explosive dart on the two guys at the tv. This was a great run tho.

Omg I never thought to just run up on him like that. 🤦‍♂️ Now I gotta improve the Any% time.

I know of a couple others I plan to make threads for in the future.