This playlist contains my guides on each segment of the any% route. This guide was last updated to add the new advanced anglerfish strat and big bang scoutboosting. There are some extra videos at the end of the playlist which are now obsolete, but I've included them for reference.
Full playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKZOqLO1puOSd7zKybYSVuVtFU3HCaV8o
Settings: Turn on instant text for free time save. Rebind recall scout to a different button from launch scout to make scout boosting easier. Optionally increase FOV and brightness. I recommend setting boost to manual. Everything else is personal preference for any%. For other categories, you may want to disable the time freeze options, rebind reverse snapshot to a different key from rotation, change language to Turkish/Russian (for 100% and all achievements), or disable/enable automatic translator (depends on category).
Before doing runs, read the leaderboard rules. I also recommend joining the discord, which is pretty active. The discord is the best place to talk to me or other runners, and we love to help!
Start: Runs are started from a new expedition. The first trick is to get up to the launch pad using Guyser Skip. Jump onto Slate's head, then onto the rock wall. From there, we have a pretty specific setup for lining up the position and angle for Guyser Skip. The idea is to enter the geyser with enough speed that we sort of 'orbit' the geyser and get flung a bit to the side upon exiting, giving us enough horizontal momentum to reach the landing pad. Then, you have to land on a slope to cancel some of the fall damage. After reaching the launch pad, enter the ship and get the suit, then exit and fly to the observatory. Enter via the open roof.
Observatory: Head to the observatory. If you jump backwards right before talking to Hornfels, you can travel back to the top of the ramp during the dialogue to save a bit of time. If you don't do this jump, make sure to spam cancel (q on PC, B/circle on console) through the dialogue to avoid accidently talking to them again. After this head to the statue. Fly through the cutscene trigger and land back on the launch pad without touching the ground in between. The cutscene will play when you land, and your suit will be removed. After the cutscene, get the suit back from the ship and fly down to the fire.
ATP Flight: Sleep as long as you can while still leaving enough time to reach the first ATP entrance. This should be 6:30 to 7:05 depending on your skill level. The setup for the optimal flight here is to fly up and right. Lock onto Ash Twin and rotate so that there is a guide arrow pointing up but not to the side. Look just below the top of the sun and thrust up and forward. Vertical thrust is separate from horizontal thrust so diagonal flight is faster. Hold this until you reach 700 m/s relative speed, then look straight at Ash Twin and begin thrusting backwards. Rotate the ship 180 degrees and aim to hit the atmosphere on the sunward side. Curve around the planet and land under the bridge between the towers. Enter the ATP when the alignment happens. You can use your scout to help with the timing if you need to. Make sure you recall your scout if you do this or it will block the return warp from activating.
ATP Interior: When you enter, turn around and jump over the railing. As you land, aim for the Nomai control orb on the floor and begin moving it. Once you touch down, look to the right and move the gravity control orb up, then look back at the floor orb and finish moving it. Once it enters the center column, look away from the orb and then back at it. Jump up while moving the orb up, and head to the center. Grab the core and fly to the return warp. If you forgot to recall your scout, do it now and move away from the warp until it glows. If at any point you fall off the side of the walkway while it is spinning, fly towards one of the poles (either north or south, whichever is closer) and then fly to the center, then down to the walkway. You can also deactivate the gravity using the controls if you are in a good position which is faster.
Flight to Dark Bramble: The sooner you exit the ATP, the better the alignment of Dark Bramble will be. Fly back to get out from under the bridge, then up and forward. Dark Bramble should be ahead and above you. It will be lower down the later you are. If you don't see it you can use the map to lock on. Fly diagonally towards Dark Bramble. Once you get close, start decelerating. You can enter at high speed but optimally you should aim for about 900-1000 m/s. If you keep crashing here go slower. It is better to slow down than to fly past or to crash.
Dark Bramble: When you enter, head towards the red light. With the normal setup this will be up right, but this could be different if you enter with a different orientation or use a different entrance. There is an anglerfish in the entrance room. If you alert the fish you either used the wrong entrance or had too much speed. In the red node you have to get past 3 anglerfish. If you are a beginner you can just drift past, or use a controller to get a small amount of thrust without alerting them. The advanced strat is called the anglerfish evade parade. To do this, hold forward until the first 2 fish begin coming towards you, then release. If they scream and try to eat you, you held too long. Coast past the first 2 fish, then fly diagonally toward the vessel node. This will alert the fish but you can outrun them. There is also a newer strat for flying past the fish without stopping. This strat is not recommended for beginners, but here is a video example:
Finding the vessel node: You will always enter the anglerfish room from the same entrance, but your rotation could be different. When you are coasting you can rotate to orient yourself. The orientation I use is to put the first and third fish on the left, and the second fish on the right. Once past the second fish you should look for a triangle of white lights surrounding the red light. The vessel node is under the long side of this triangle.
Vessel: Land the ship at the vessel with the hatch pointing towards the hallway, then exit and fly to the control room. Slow down as you approach the center column so you don't die on impact. Place the core and hold down right to ricochet towards the control orb. Move the control orb, then enter the coordinates. You should memorize them.
Vessel Skip: Build up speed towards the door and activate the warp while flying past it. Then, once the eye scene loads, you can fly through the door before the collision loads. This skips the sequence of walking along the purple planet. On console, you can build up enough speed to clip through the door even after it loads in just by flying from the far side of the room, which is a good backup. This is the hardest trick in the run to learn because of the long setup to get 1 attempt, but the trick itself isn't too difficult. You should always go for this trick even as a beginner because it doesn't lose much if any time to fail it versus not going for it at all. Once you are through, head outside and fly down below the eye planet to hit the loading zone for the quantum observatory. Optimal flight here is to go down and back diagonally while scout boosting. Scout boosting is simply using the recoil from launching the scout to gain backwards momentum. The loading zone here is pretty large but it is possible to miss. You can use the purple columns as a visual cue even while travelling backwards since they are always the same.
Chuzzle Strats: If you fail vessel skip, take the warp down to the planet. The gravity here is really high but you can use scout boosting to build up speed while flying backwards if you keep jumping to preserve speed. You want to touch the ground as little as possible since the ground will slow you down. If you go too fast you can slam into rocks and die, so you might want to slow down when you get close to the pole. You can then jump into the vortex as normal.
Ending sequence: Go through the observatory to the galaxy map and interact with it. After the cutscene, you want to fly down to the forest as fast as possible. The next sequence is on a timer which starts when you get close to the ground. You can use scout boosting to get down faster if you still have your scout. To keep the scout, you just need to have it recalled when you hit the loading zone. Once you land, look for a set of 3 big trees close together. There is also a line of 3 big trees pointing from the edge of the forest towards the 3 good trees. If you don't change your orientation while flying down, you can find this by going backwards to the edge of the forest and looking on the left for the line of 3 trees. The 3 good trees should be in front of you to the left. Once in position, wait for the forest to go dark. You can use this time to zoom out the signalscope all the way if you want. Once it gets dark, look at and away from the 3 trees to spawn the clone. You can do this by spinning or by toggling the flashlight and looking at each tree in turn. Fly toward the clone, and land as you get to them. Toggle the flashlight repeatedly while looking at the tree that spawns until you get the prompt to light it, then do so. Spin until Esker spawns then talk to him. Next, fly towards the banjo. If looking at the fire with Esker on the left, the banjo will be to the right. Use the signalscope to aim. When you see the building, stop thrusting and toggle the flashlight to make it collapse. Get the banjo, then fly back and talk to Riebeck. If you elect to do Choink to get the drums (explained below) do it now, then collect the other 2 instruments in your preferred order. If you don't do Choink you will need to go get the drums as well. You do not need to follow the signs to find the flute if you know where it is. Head back to the fire and talk to everyone. You can't pass between Esker and the fire so you will need to jump over or go around. I like to hold w and spam e and q while looking at each traveler in turn. There is no danger here of talking to them more than once. Once the music ends, you can enter the orb to start the big bang sequence. It is faster to enter from below, so stand on the fire (which won't damage you) and jump and thrust up when you hear the last note fading out. After this just wait for the big bang and the run is over. You can save about half a second by scoutboosting away from the big bang.
Choink: You can collect the drums from any distance, even without line of sight. The normal setup is to do this right after talking to Riebeck. The drums will be to the right of Esker near one of the trees.
- Achievements subcategories
- Ghosts in the Machine
- It Belongs in a Museum
- Death subcategories
- Sun% (Die in the Sun)
- Hydraulic Press% (Die crushed by an elevator)
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All Deaths Dies in the 15 possible ways.
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**Bo