The purpose of this guide is to provide an updated list of all strategies that we have come up with for each of the bonus missions for each character, which are played in the All Character Missions speedrun. This guide will include videos showcasing what the ideal strategy for each level should look like. If you're looking for a particular mission, you can Ctrl+F the missions title or use the table of contents below. I would like to thank @PaulDSSB and @MysticManiac not just for their discovery of many of these tactics, but also for helping me write the guide itself.
General Notes
- This guide will ONLY cover the bonus missions, as well as important notes about the ACM run when it is different from the Any% run. For the missions that overlap between Any% and ACM, please see the Any% guide.
- A recommendation from runners of this game is to do the Invasion, Street Fight, House Party, and Femme Fatale before beginning any of the bonus missions; the reason for this is that as you are probably aware, the Femme Fatale quick kill found in Any% is among the most difficult tricks of the run and is also required in ACM. By completing these four missions first, it should help reduce your reset penalty if things go wrong in Femme Fatale.
- This guide is best used in tandem with the general gameplay tips guide created by @MysticManiac, also here on SRC. This guide is mostly meant to explain what to do to get through the levels fastest, but being familiar with the game and some techniques will be very helpful, which Mystic's guide will be excellent for. That being said, some of the more important general gameplay tips are featured in the list below these notes, also assembled by @MysticManiac.
General Strats
- Whenever you throw items, hold the super button to throw the items faster and more accurately.
- Most characters have a number of ways to launch items at enemies with their attacks which they are less likely to catch or block.
- Counter attacks (dodge followed by an attack) can be used by every character to launch enemies into the air. You can follow that up with an aerial combo which will do a lot of damage to enemies overall. Wolverine can use his sprinting super attack instead of a counter attack to launch enemies which deals more damage than a regular counter attack.
- Whenever you down an enemy, instead of trying to attack them multiple times while they're on the ground, it's generally better to set up a counter attack so you can launch them again on their wake up.
- Many projectile based characters can use their aerial super, super counter attack (dodge followed by super attack) to shoot projectiles using less energy including Human Torch, Iron Man, Paragon etc. Additionally, many characters will be able to use their super counter attacks or super wakeup attacks (when grounded) while at low energy at no cost, including Human Torch, Spider-Man, Storm & Iron Man.
- Bosses as well as Ravagers/Obliterators are generally more likely to deflect standing projectile attacks than super counter attacks or aerial projectile attacks.
- It's often a good idea to briefly recharge some energy by holding the super button while standing still whenever you need to wait for enemies to spawn. You won't be able to recharge that much but every bit of energy can help.
- All characters are capable of recovering from attacks when launched. To recover, hold down the mobility and super buttons together while being flown. Daredevil/Storm/Torch/Iron Man/Magneto/Paragon all recover in the air, Wolverine/Thing/Elektra recover on the ground and on walls, and Spidey/Venom can recover in the air, on the ground and on walls.
These are the most important general strats you should know but for more information on general strats and techniques, look at the more in-depth general tips guide by @MysticManiac on speedrun.com and this youtube playlist of short video guides https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLySrO8uhnVW07YUAdhDo61ZeL7Rpoz1Dj
Sacrifice Missions
We are forced to handle the sacrifice missions in ACM a little bit differently than we do in Any%. As was the same with Any%, the sacrifice missions that we do not recommend for speed purposes are: Clash of Steel, Deadlier Than Males, and a choice between skipping either Along Came a Spider or Rage of the Beast, though the other must be completed if one is skipped. However, we cannot do the sacrifice missions in precisely the same order that we do in Any% because in the Any% route, we choose to kill Venom, Spider-Man, and Human Torch (if doing ACaS) as quickly as we can, which in an ACM run would cut off our access to their bonus missions.
Sacrifice missions are the same as Any% up until the completion of Fatal Heat (Venom 3). For the first sacrifice (after "Daredevil", Elektra 3), we recommend Last Stand, and for the second (after Earthquake, Storm 3) we recommend Death By Fire. Normally in Any%, we would do Lethal Toxin next after Fatal Heat (Venom 3), but since we need to complete Venom's bonus missions we cannot, so we have some options that are entirely up to runner discretion.
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Last Stand, Death By Fire, Rage of the Beast, Lethal Toxin, High Voltage, Casualties of War.
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Last Stand, Death By Fire, Casualties of War, Lethal Toxin, High Voltage, Along Came a Spider/Rage of the Beast.
Which option you prefer is entirely up to you, as theoretically each of these options can be just as fast as the other. If you are confident enough in your abilities as Wolverine, and enjoy saving Casualties of War til the end of the run for an easy final sacrifice, then option 1 may be best for you. However, if you would much rather perform Along Came a Spider than Rage of the Beast, you may have to perform Casualties of War much earlier. Technically, in option 2 it is still possible to do RotB instead of ACaS if that is your desire, but the actual point of option 2 is to make it possible to play ACaS, if you would like to play RotB then option 1 would be best for you. This is entirely runner choice.
With these notes and general gameplay tips in mind, its time to get to the levels! Good luck!
The Thing
ITS ON NOW
Relatively straight forward, this mission requires the Thing to defeat 14 Invaders. The fastest way for The Thing to kill Invaders is with a counter attack. This attack launches the Invaders into the air, and they are killed by the impact from falling to the ground. The first group of two Invaders spawns in immediately when the level starts, and it is worthwhile to pickup the nearby taxi to attempt to kill them both in one throw, but this sometimes simply will not work. After the first group, another group of two Invaders appears, use the counter attack to kill them. After the first 4 Invaders are killed, an unskippable cutscene will play that shows a helicopter crashing into the large rock that is in your way. To save a small amount of time, kill the 4th Invader with an aerial attack after the counter attack so that he dies faster and the cutscene begins faster (NOTE: This functions everytime you are killing the last enemy of a group with Thing).
After the cutscene, it is best to stand and wait for a moment and possibly charge some of your energy, because for some reason there is a large explosion that appears in the place of the large rock that is now destroyed and it is not possible for Thing to get through the gap before that explosion happens. After the explosion, run forward, and ignore the 2 Invaders that are directly in front of you; these Invaders do not have to be killed for the mission progression. Use an aerial attack to destroy the barrier of cars. The next two Invaders can be killed with counter attacks or by flinging the car into them. If done quickly enough, the next two Invaders will spawn on the ledge to the left and can be killed very quickly with an aerial super drop attack as shown in the video. The next group will be a group of 3 Invaders, and it is recommended to kill them with the taxi that is directly below you; pick the taxi up from the side so that the Thing is carrying it horizontally and your throw is more likely to kill more than one Invader. After that, throw the taxi at the final group of 3 Invaders and kill any remaining Invaders with counter attacks.
Video:
CATCH THIS!
This level is extremely complicated to perform perfectly, so for the ideal version of this mission, please see the video below. As soon as the level starts, sprint towards the Turlin Engine and perform a sprinting super attack into it to destroy it immediately to lower the electric barrier. The Decapitator that spawns in in the very beginning of the level that is standing on the other side of the electric barrier does not have to be killed for the missions progression. Run past him, and perform an aerial attack into the car barrier to destroy it (NOTE: stop sprinting shortly before reaching this car barrier, as if you do a sprinting aerial attack into it, The Thing will not collide with the cars for some reason and instead slide right off of it).
After getting through the first car barrier there is a Decapitator directly on the other side waiting for you, sprint towards him, and perform a counter attack to launch him, then perform an aerial attack combo to send him back to the ground, and finish him off with a super stomp attack (Thing's piledriver). To your left will be two more Decapitators, and the best way to kill them is to attempt to catch their objects and throw them back at them, then finish them off with counter-attacks and aerial combos. After killing these two Decapitators, 6 Invaders will spawn together in the center of the stage. Around this time, you should also be getting a Rage available, and it is recommended that you take it around this time because you will need the energy. Perform a counter-super attack near the center of the ring of 6 Invaders to attempt to kill as many of them in one hit as you can, it will likely take about two attacks to finish them all, and the electric barrier will disappear.
For the final area of the level, sprint towards the next car barrier and perform another aerial attack to get through it (you can sprint towards this one). This is the point where it is important that you have your Rage active. After breaking through the car barrier, sprint towards the next group of enemies, which is 2 Decapitators, and perform a sprinting super attack before they are able to throw the dumpsters that they pick up at you. After you have interrupted their dumpster throws, perform counter attacks and aerial attacks on them to finish them off. The final group of enemies is 4 Invaders, to finish them perform the same counter-super attack in the middle of their spawn location for the best chance to kill them quickly.
Video:
CLOBBER 'EM ALL
This mission requires Thing to defeat 13 enemies. The first group that appears is 4 Invaders, you will have a moment to grab a nearby barrel when the level begins to easily kill one of the Invaders, and perform the counter attack kill on the remainder of them, ending with a counter attack into aerial attack to get the next group to spawn quicker. The next group is 2 Decapitators, which can be easily killed in one of two ways: either launch the Decaps into the air and follow up with an aerial attack combo to cause them to ring-out, or defeat them with heavy objects, either should be perfectly viable. The next group is 3 Invaders and 2 Ravagers, all of which can be killed using the counter attack strategy; again, end with the counter attack into aerial attack to cause the next group to appear faster. The final group is once again 2 Decapitators, which can be killed using the same strategy as the previous group of Decaps.
Video:
BROKEN THINGS
This mission is one of 3 in the ACM run that involve a modification to the way that the player's health functions. In this one, The Thing starts the mission at half health. Overall, this should not be a major concern, but it is worth it to be careful with explosions. There are only 3 enemy groups that must be defeated to complete this level. The first group is of 3 Decapitators, which are easily killed by throwing cars or trucks at them. The next group includes 6 Invaders, which can be easily defeated using the counter attack strategy; as usual, defeat the final Invader with an aerial attack to spawn the next group slightly quicker. The final group consists of 3 Ravagers, which like Invaders can be killed using the same counter attack strategy; that being said, these particular Ravagers are very spread out, and it may be worthwhile to attempt to throw something at whichever Ravager is the most distant from you.
One strange thing to note about the Ravagers is that the Ravager which appears on the far-left side of the map (if looking at the stage from the Vs. mode perspective) will occasionally die due to an explosion, but this is not consistent and you may have to kill this Ravager. The featured video does show this Ravager being killed without any action taken by the Thing.
Video:
Wolverine
CLAWS OF FURY
This mission has a pretty straight-forward strategy. The goal of this strategy is to get all of the enemies to ring themselves out, which is much faster than Wolverine fighting them (some of which are very strong) by hand. First, it is important to remember that you have to step forward a bit from your starting location to cause the enemies to spawn in the beginning. After the enemies spawn in, turn left, and either super jump onto the ledge of the bridge or wall-run vertically up (Wolverine will pull himself up automatically), and then super jump again to wall-cling to the large stone pillar that is to the left of your starting position so that you are clinged above the chasm. Climb up and as far over to the right as you are able to with Wolverine, and you should notice that the enemies will begin following you and jump over the ledge, killing themselves trying to reach you. There is a slight RNG element to this mission considering you are relying on the enemies movement, but the timer in the lower-left side of the screen can help you see how well it has gone for you: using this timer in the lower-left, this mission seems to usually end anywhere between 1:45-2:05.
Video:
TO DEFY A GODDESS
When this mission begins, for some reason it is scripted for Storm to stand still and not move or attack for just a few seconds, which gives us an opportunity to begin our strat. As soon as the level begins, do not touch the control stick, and perform a regular attack, followed immediately by a super attack (as a combo) and Wolverine should hit the barrel in front of him and fling it directly into Storm every time. This gives you a chance to close the distance between you and Storm, and you can end the mission by performing a sprinting super attack to launch storm in the air, followed by an aerial super grab to throw her over the edge for a ring out. If done quickly, this mission can last only a few seconds. She may attempt to super grab you while you are running over, as shown in the video, so if you are aware of this you can be ready to break the grab.
Video:
If the barrel does not hit Storm, or if she otherwise interrupts the strategy, attempt to perform the sprinting super attack + aerial super grab to ring her out as soon as possible to minimize timeloss.
Back-up examples:
Elektra
SILENT DEATH
ASSASSIN'S BLADES
The goal of this mission is to destroy all of the 11 computer screens in the Avenger's Mansion basement. The best way to do this quickly is to kick out one of the consoles on either side of the computer screen, while also attempting to angle your kick towards another one of the screens to ideally destroy two computer screens with one kick. Begin on the lower level, and when you have destroyed all 6 screens on the lower level, wall run or super jump up one of the lower platforms to begin performing the same strat on the computer consoles on the top level. To get from platform to platform quickly, perform a wall run between them as shown in the video.
Video:
Daredevil
TAKE THEM DOWN
This mission requires Daredevil to defeat 20 enemies, and the enemies appear as a continuously re-spawning group of 4 Eviscerators, a Desolator, and a Decapitator; everytime you kill one of these enemies, another enemy of the same type will instantly re-spawn. The best strategy for this mission is to essentially spawn-camp the Desolator and perform a standard aerial grab everytime they spawn in, and while waiting for the Desolator to re-spawn, perform Daredevil's aerial super attack on any nearby enemies, but most preferably the Eviscerators. This should allow you to rack up 20 kills very quickly.
Video:
LOVER'S QUARREL
This is a complicated boss fight with a lot of different variables that can occur, and since there is no possibility for a ring-out, you will have to take out Elektra the old-fashioned way. In this mission, it is very worthwhile to remember things that you should NOT do as well as things you should try for. One thing to note immediately is that keeping Elektra at mid-range is most ideal for this mission, as her super combo can deal a great deal of damage to Daredevil, and for some reason she is extremely likely to perform a finisher on you the moment you reach Danger. When the mission starts, Elektra will often do one of two things: she will either throw her knives at you, or attempt to pick up an object. It is recommended to begin the mission moving to avoid a potential knife-throw, and immediately pick up an object to throw at her; there is a possibility for this to do a great deal of damage to her. Outside of objects, Daredevil's aerial super attack is very effective at dealing fast damage to Elektra. It is generally recommended to perform Daredevil's finisher on Elektra in this mission if you get her health down quickly enough, and otherwise continue landing super attacks on her to take her down as fast as possible.
Video:
Storm
FIGHT TO SURVIVE
In this mission Storm must kill 15 enemies by ring-out. To do this, we fly to the far end of the map, on the other side of the chasm, and stand rather precariously on a ledge to trick the enemies into ringing themselves out; for the exact positioning of this ledge, please view the video below. Begin the mission by ringing out one of the enemies that immediately spawn in front of you with a super grab, this will trigger a ring-out cutscene. You have to manually ring-out this first enemy as the cutscene resets Storm's position. After this, begin flying while holding the super button (IMPORTANT: do not let go of the super button from this point forward) and head over to the ledge on the other side of the stage. The death-plane is very high in this mission, and when standing on the ledge, you will be standing only a few pixels above it. DO NOT let go of the super button while standing, as this will change Storm's stance and she will fall below the line and you will die. While waiting for enemies to ring themselves out, angle the camera so that you can see behind you and watch for the Ravagers firing at you; if they do, super block WITHOUT EVER letting go of the super button. After about 12-13 enemies have rung themselves out, it is alright for Storm to begin flying over the chasm to try and bait the enemies more directly. This strat will likely take practice to get the feel of where you can stand on the ledge without dying.
Video:
WRATH OF THE ELEMENTS
Venom
WANTON DESTRUCTION
RISE AND FALL
This strat will take practice. The requirement of this mission is that Venom kill 12 enemies by ring-out. Like Fight to Survive, this mission's strat involves us getting into a position that causes the enemies to ring themselves out quickly. When the mission begins, web-zip (standing mobility) or jump and web-swing towards the cell-tower slightly to your left, a Ravager is likely to attempt to shoot you so attempt to avoid this, and grab the cell-tower. Immediately turn and do a jump attack with it to destroy the "DAILY" sign as fast as possible. After this, perform a web-zip, allow yourself to fall very briefly, then web-swing and cling onto the wall below where the "DAILY" sign was. If done properly, Venom will cling there and the enemies will begin to ring themselves out very quickly. The main thing that requires practice with this mission is getting a feel for where the death-plane is. The safe-zone in front of the Daily Bugle is something of a box, if you go too far to the left, too far to the right, too low, or too far out away from the building (which may surprise you with how close it is), Venom will die. When clinging to the wall, it is also worthwhile to remember to not crawl too low as the death-plane is fairly high. That being said, you also have to be careful to not be wall-clinged directly at the top either, as the hit-box from Ravager's attacks can knock you off of the wall if they fire at you and you are too high up. An image of where the death-plane begins can be seen below the video below.
Video:
Do not go below this line when clinging to the wall: https://imgur.com/a/tAW52Ed
