I developed a new strat for Freeman's Files, and I need to document it.

*After you kick open the door to the room with the safe, tell the electrician to "Take Cover"

*Put "541" into safe; it it's the right code, continue the run; if it's wrong, reset

*After opening the safe, and exiting the room, tell the electrician to "Follow Me" at the top of the staircase.

When you do this, the electrician will be coming out of the vent as you reach the bottom of the stairs. This way, he'll be right behind you as you tell to him "Open Door" on the doorway that leads to the switch "puzzle" room. This saves a ton of time.

I already have a PB in the Any% Hard category for this level that BETTER than my Any% time by 2 seconds using this strat. However, I don't plan to post it to the leaderboard just yet. First, I want to try to get a sub 2mins 23secs run on Any% Hard. Then, I want to improve my Any% time with this new strat. After that, I'll post them both. lol

Throughout the game, there are several instances where you're forced to use a specific weapon in order to proceed. For obvious reasons, these weapons are allowed to be used for their intended purposes in the "Sidearms Only" and "Standard Loadout" categories. They include:

-The mandatory turret sections in the missions "Under NORAD's Nose" and "Memories."

-The Anti-Tank SMAW used to destroy the tank in the mission "The Trojan Horse."

-The EMP Grenades used to kill the armored enemies and Singularity in the missions "Red Section," "Drowning," "Event Horizon" and "Matter's End." (EDT Darts are NOT allowed to be used in place of these grenades in "Sidearms Only," but CAN be used in "Standard Loadout.")

Using the weapons listed above for anything other than their intended purposes will invalidate your run. Use of other weapons not classified as "sidearms" or "standard loadout" will also invalidate your run.

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.

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 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.

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.

While running the Any% Full Game category, I discovered a skip in the mission "Kreisler's Garden." In the hydroponics lab towards the end of the level, there is a gate with an interactive panel. It's required that you interact with the panel to open the gate, which leads to a small room with a computer terminal that you must access as part of the mission. After interacting with the panel, it is revealed that Gabe doesn't have access to it, and asks Teresa to hack it. She'll then tell you that she needs some time, forcing you to clear the lab of enemies. Once the last enemy has been killed, the gate will open. Every once in a while, however, the gate will open immediately after interacting with the panel, skipping the need to kill the enemies in the lab. I call this the "Teresa Skip."

I'm not entirely sure what triggers the skip to occur. I would encounter the skip once every ten or so runs, and thought that it was just random. After doing some experimenting with the level, though, I realized something that had never occurred to me before. In some levels, the enemy spawns are tied to enemies that spawn before them. For instance, in the L-shaped hallway prior to the hydroponics lab, there are two regular enemies, and a flamethrower enemy that spawn. If you don't kill the two regular enemies, the enemies within the lab won't all spawn in. This can result in a sort of softlock. Since the enemies haven't all spawned in, Teresa won't open the gate. To remedy this, you'd have to go back to the hallway, kill the two enemies, then return to the lab and kill the enemies that spawn in. However, not all enemies are tied to spawns later in the level. Some enemies seem to be tied to event triggers, as well. Of course, there are the obvious ones. Such as Red Jack, who triggers the end of the level "Red Jack" when killed. There are also enemies tied to event triggers that aren't as obvious. From my experimentation, it would seem that the flamethrower enemy in the L-shaped hallway is somehow tied to the panel that opens the gate in the lab. By not killing that specific enemy, the gate will open without the need to kill all of the enemies within the lab. Or in other words, the Teresa Skip will occur. However, the skip won't happen every time. For some reason, every few runs of the level, the skip just wouldn't happen. Despite me leaving the flamethrower enemy alive. I haven't found an answer to why the skip works some times and not others. But for now, the skip is worth it when it does occur, and helps save around 5-8 seconds depending on your skill dispatching the final wave of enemies .

New moderator requests are always welcomed in the Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror leaderboard. We have a desire to build a strong and passionate community of runners who love the game, and want to improve the potential of pushing the game to its limits. However, to be eligible for moderator status, runners must first:

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If you're interested in moderating the leaderboard, and meet these requirements, feel free to message one of the current moderators with your request. The moderator team will then review your request within one to two weeks.

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