I stumbled into this game through retroachievements because next to no one had played it and it turns out this game owns. they have leaderboards for each stage which explains the pop-up at the end of each level; it's clearly not in real-time. a lot of things are now outdated as I edited this & the next two posts a lot after finding more sweet stuff. incoming long post I had to break in two

Rumble in the Jungle

if you jump at the right time you can not trigger that very first cutscene, though it doesn't save any time. you can sort of strafe through the (back of the) fuel can tree to save .x seconds but it's not a guarantee. blowing the first QTE saves you 5 real life seconds, and it takes 1 or 2 to get the AK manually. the jump after the last demo spot is real hard with all that lag, and you can crash the game when the cutscene loads if you haven't killed enough guards? to the best of my knowledge/testing. sadly even if you could clip through the mansion door, you would still have to plant all the demolitions for the mission to end

Finders Keepers

not continued from the above run, otherwise you have to equip the AK yourself, get the SMG later, empty one to get the other, try to survive make your time. otherwise nothing special about this level, though it's dangerous! and the last guard likes to spawn far away !

Rigged to Blow

imo the hardest level, lots of health and ammo juggling & lag suffering. for some reason you don't need to interact with any of the hostages for them to be considered rescued + the objective considered complete at the end of this level & the next one. I don't think going for the HMG is worth the few seconds

thankfully you can ignore the middle 3 bombs as long as you can ultimately reach the final bomb before the previous bomb's timer runs out; its timer will pause during the defuse. HOWEVER!!1!! I found out a while later, the previous bomb's timer will still tick down as you're ending the level, so you need a good 20+ seconds after defusing the last bomb to beat the level real quick! and if you don't skip the final cutscene, the failure scene will play out after you've beaten the level and you could still lose after you win I think. careful!

bonus: I wasn't recording it (-_- ) but one time the entire big room with the broken elevator fuse box didn't spawn anyone at all, even the hostage, and I could still complete the level just fine. no other room was affected; I found out in other levels that there are triggers to spawn each room I assume, but just knowing they exist is the extent of my knowledge. this particular case was back when I would turn the steam valve, and I was messing around with turning sounds off

Caution: Curves Ahead

very dangerous route health-wise; if you're not (near) full you should not risk the first chump jump™, both of which I'm very glad work, and head down the ladder hole for a few more seconds. emptying the sniper rifle will keep the first two guards from deviating. if you could just clip through the card door.... (read ahead 10000 words ^_~)

bonus: for a few days I only tried jumping off the left side of the turret room and learned that it despawns the next 3-4 guards - their trigger is falling down the ladder spot. but with red health vs. a turret - Yikes !!

Dangerous Discovery

there's an SMG right there ! (although you could save like 3 seconds getting the one in the locker room after emptying out the pistol.) you don't have to protect the uplink whatsoever; I think the enemy stays aggroed the whole time. if you could just clip through the frozen door....

Frozen Assets

ah my pride and joy. I've since changed my mind and pick up the HMG instead; I think it's like 1 second faster. I'm very glad you can chump jump® through that ceiling, saving a lot of time ammo & health, but you have to be far into it otherwise you will be considered inside the wall/out of bounds and Die!!!

now the last section is miserable if you take it normally: not enough ammo, a guard up there can shoot you off the ladder (you can hold O while being shot off of things and you won't lose all of your balance), it's laggier than usual.

enter the 7-Up (patent pending): there's a white 7 on the rock wall I use as a landmark so I can jump up to the sadly only possible spot in this area. unless I'm mistaken it will always take 2 jumps to do.... for whatever reason, your second consecutive jump when standing still is higher than your first

month later update: it's easier safer & faster to do this on the furthest top-right wall by using a barely visible U as your cue, after you shoot a few dudes along the way. hopefully it'll be on video one day

one last thing, if you have low health and fall & grab the chain right as you'd splat, you'll "die" but in "reality" actually be invincible. unfortunately you cannot use the equip menu, just the pause menu. further unfortunately it goes away once you watch the crystal cutscene; any cutscene that changes the aspect ratio will do that. even more still unfortunately I found out in Countdown to Danger that even if this carried through the end of the level, the end of the level will never actually trigger, you'll just stand there forever. (you can do this on Dangerous Discovery too by falling off the first elevator & grabbing a ledge but you get softlocked on the uplink cutscene)

Museum Mayhem

read next post that contradicts the second half of this sentence: very scary route until wall clipping is found. on that note, with Sydney in particular, if you are up against a wall & aim in first person all the way up or down, then crack the whip & switch weapons, you can aim even further up or down for a weird camera angle. but it might just be a fun visual thing ,'/

also of note, in practice I managed to sideflip through the second set of stairs on the way up to the laser room & got the oob death within a second. I was being fired at by like 3 dudes so it could be DK64-style lag. also managed to despawn the first room after getting caught while entering the first cutscene once if that was what caused it. how neat is that

Crossing the Line

as long as you focus on the center as he teleports, he will always spawn in those spots on either side of the room. if your focus is off even a little he will spawn in the middle left or right and zing ya! I swear I got up to 10 shots off on him once

Bustin' Out

read next post that contradicts this whole paragraph: maybe the least special level, but the grenade launcher is a must for the next level. Museum stair thing makes me think you can clip through the two-button door, but I've tried many moves on it to no avail. you can shoot the guard through the top though if you're evil

Maximum Firepower

this guy sucks; sometimes his tanks take 3 hits instead of 4, I swear once it was 2, you have to stand close enough that you don't get hurt by them exploding & far enough that the shotgun spread is fully.... spread? and even then, it'll feel like they should blow up but they don't. then pace your grenades so you don't die to the second one (don't hold down fire). the tops of the tanks feel like they take less hits than the bottoms?

update: ok I've found a consistent (enough) setup for him after all, you gotta be quick though. fire two unaimed shots into his back, then first-person the right tank twice, then go for the left in hopefully another two. the switch from third- to first-person lets you shoot a lil quicker than usual which is nice. maybe alternate for each shot?

Countdown to Danger

emptying out the sniper rifle at the start has a nice bonus: the guard can spawn right where you jump and shoot you off, so all the shots will distract him long enough to avoid him. I have no real clue for the sniper shot other than the box is about where that guy's shins are

update: I empty out the sniper rifle after picking up the SMG and aim for the panel with that instead. better chance of hitting it that way

Catfight to the Finish

foot hitbox abuse is my favorite discovery behind the ceiling jump. those micro movements while in first person prevent the aim wavering that happens after a second or two. I collect the AK & empty it out on the goons because it's a painfully slow gun to use on the final boss and a lil faster than collecting extra SMG ammo at the end. be wary right after foot guy dies that there can be a guard that spawns in your face!

if I never rerecord this level, you can get a one-cycle on this guy by loudly emptying the pistol down to ~15 shots, shooting them & nearly two full SMG clips into him; you have to be a quick aimer though. you only need <50 ammo for final babe

misc. content post that I've edited a lot for documentation purposes

found a clip through the Bustin' Out slanted wall ┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴ you need to be full health to safely do this, as if you're closer than this you will be left with 1 sliver for reference (though the end is safe enough to do that low), or any closer than that and you'll blow up.

mercifully the game gives you a good setup: backwalk off the top step, turn around slowly (or double-tap for the quick turnaround, just aim further accordingly), where I aimed here is about the absolute limit for you to be blown back by the grenade I do believe, once blown back mash shoot to quickly recover (naturally recovering won't put you in the right position), press down to fall down. or if you have the cajones, put JC's right foot on the tiny dot indent thing in the sun decal part of the floor, first-person shoot, hope the grenade sticks, then walk up to the top & turn around. it takes some distance-judging instinct to know where to stand to blow up well however

top 10 gamer relief moments having found this (most of the rest are posted above). I only went searching for this because of JC's earlier level v

if you're perpendicular to this bolted part of the drill hatch, you can walk into it in place from either side in perpendicular perpetuity. if you strafe while walking you'll fall right through! unfortunately.... you need to still finish both objectives for the mission to end. and all the remaining guards still spawn. smh JC

this is the only method I've found** (beyond a 1/1000000 chance jumping & getting stuck in the wall at the entrance to the tunnel on Catfight) of clipping through walls.... very .... very .... slowly .... by doing the secret backflip: (well first you have to come to a stop & be like parallel with your back to the wall) press the jump button then hold back and you get a slow backflip with some actual height behind it. you can get a slower sidehop too but with no added benefits as of yet. secret backflip can almost get into the room straight ahead of spawn in Dangerous Discovery but not almost enough.

it takes 8 seconds to get into that pillar, 40 if you're going the other way this side into the far wall, if you have a lot of free time. you can do this slide clip with a lot of fumbling around on some plants in Museum, like the one opposite the system link room. this works on the elevator fuse box in Rigged but sadly you stop before you touch the elevator / _ \

**this is the second method I've found: Museum clips ! ! !

I think this is PAL only? you can fall OoB here & die on a whim on both versions but I can only ever seem to fall out on NTSC. you have to crouch & attempt to whip which will cause Sydney to zhuzh forward without ever getting to whip, moving her ever so slightly (you can see this in her feet shadow). for whatever reason, facing away from the door (and I mean barely; don't let the camera change) will let you fall into ??? & out of #$% and land in the farther side of the gate, where you can jump at any point and successfully clip through. I mean, if you're lucky.... Sydney likes to pop out of position when whipping sometimes. I don't know how precise your pause has to be because she likes to still die midway through the floor

do take note!! that this only works on the left sides of these gates, as each time you press against a wall your Danger Girl will move slightly to the right, as well as the camera doesn't really orient itself on the right side like it does here. you can smush yourself into many doors like this but you can't flip out of them =\ only Sydney can whip twitch through (for now . . .)

also, I think this only works if there is an OoB/death plane above you, as I can't get it to work on the Caution card door nor computer room door

**this is the third method I've found: Museum clips but consistent albeit slightly slower than the ultimate best you can do the previous clips (NTSC-safe version) ! ! !

this way you need not risk the warpz0r either not working at all or KO'ing you instantly. a few times I crashed around the laser gate for unknown reasons (laser lag?). you need to position yourself so the camera is "stuck" on the wall you were just pressed up against, and far enough to the right that you actually nudge forward while whipping (you have to enter crab-walk stance, hold forward & whip to move; sometimes you won't move at all so look closely). too far(?) and not far enough from whatever the sweet spots are will nudge you backwards and you'll have to re-wall-press. that quick stop (animation cut short) that Sydney does in both clips is considered clipped into the wall.

for the Curves door, it takes 5 nudges before you can walk further forward still in the door, then in my experience 10 more to safely be able to jump out; try not to adjust the camera position or you can fall through the floor if you're parallel with the door. as long as Sydney gets that semi-stuck jump you aren't at risk of jumping backwards out the door. this makes the rest of the route harder if you take the first cool jump.... you'll have to headshot the shotgun guard at a minimum. but the last two guys shouldn't be much trouble

you can complete Museum without needing to pres butan or do the QTE, but you softlock if you clip through the final gate . . . . maybe there's a non-panel trigger ?

you can clip through the first door on Countdown, but it takes so much longer than the clips above and you would be without the SMG

• if you're not at full ammo and you (run &) jump & press O in midair for the grab animation your gun will reload itself a moment after you land. extremely helpful tech

• with the 2 jump clause you can make it on top of the locked gate in Rumble where you'll find the spikes are fake, but this would be out of the way in the route. you can jump to the lightpost behind you though for a nice view

• the pillows in the crew quarters in Caution have weird vicious physics that shoot you off the bed or in different directions for some reason. the sphinx(?)'s cheeks in the Sydney clip have the same properties

• messing around in Countdown with the invincible glitch, Sydney will fall down a hole forever instead of dying within a second of being out of bounds, which makes me think if you can go oob reliably on a non-objectives-complete-needed level with the glitch (Dangerous) you could pull something off? run on top of rooms ?

• behind the start in Curves you can stand on those railings and almost no others in the game. there isn't any level to jump down to below them unfortunately

• an invisible man shoots at you from under the floor while on the way to the security card in Finders Keepers. not nice

• there's another jump on Curves you can do that I found after the two fast ones, right after the cutscene that pans up to the guards - go right & jump over the stubborn railing into the wall (which I believe is the reason you don't insta-die doing this on this level, the game checks for you touching something or whatever) to end up further back than the other two jumps. still neat

• the L/R/1/2 buttons move the equip menu a smidge faster than doing it manually. but memorizing that is daunting to think about

zooming in on (distant) interactable things with sniper rifle & pressing O to use them: no success

(pre-whip clip discovery) Curves: you can clip into the inner wall on the left of spawn up against the left door to smush yourself between the AC unit(?) and the wall, then backflip down into the ether where you can see the helicopter in the distance. so far cannot clip into a wall further along to see if you can insta-end the level, though the 3 mismatched boxes a room ahead look promising. or a trashcan

blowing up a fire extinguisher to try to clip your feet into something: wahh

you can climb into these things, backflip around to either fall forever (until you activate invincible cheat), somehow land on top of the thing itself (but you can't grab onto the railing ledge), or fall off unceremoniously

months later screwing around: you seem to stand barely further forward without a gun equipped; equip/unequip gun and look at shadow to see for yourself. I was hoping this would lead to the other two girls being able to clip through doors like Sydney (like unequipping & jumping/crouching at the max distance forward) but no luck so far.

also if you equip a gun while unarmed at the top of a jump & spam Circle for frame-perfectness you can walk around with a gun "equipped" (shown in the corner) but not actually equipped. neat but nothing