This is a guide to both any% and bad ending; if you are running bad ending, simply follow the exact same route up until the mission Miller Space. This guide will be written in sections corresponding to the missions in the game (as they are called in the quest log).

General Exploits: Firstly, there are two exploits in this game we use regularly: reload exploit and sprint exploit. In this game, when you start sprinting, for the first second or so you do not lose stamina. If you rythmically press the sprint button, you will not go slower, but not use any stamina either. We use this in any part of the run where we do not have superpowers. Furthermore, when switching weapons, the game automatically reloads the weapon you are switching to. If you run out of ammo in the selected weapon, use the weapon hotkeys to quickly switch to another weapon and back to reload your weapon with no animation. Note also that in this game, any pre-rendered cutscenes can be skipped, while in-game cutscenes cannot be skipped. Also, QTE's are always the same buttons, so these can simply be learned an mashed before they appear; if you push the button on the first possible frame, it will not even show up on screen.

Zero Saints Thirty: Not too much to say here, just go to the markers as quickly as you can. You only need to kill the enemies in the first room (you do not need to stealthily kill them - just use your gun), and the enemies in the slow-mo section. All others can be ignored. When you run into the long corridor, do not run to far, as this softlocks the game; instead only run up to the marker. In the open room after pushing open the gate, there is an enemy with a rocket launcher (up on the railing), who may ragdoll you if you do not push him on the way by. After the QTE with Cyrus, there is a stagger trigger on the first bit of railing; you can roll over this.

The Saints Wing: Character sex doesn’t really matter. The dialogue decisions are unimportant for the first two encounters as they are of equal length, however you save 3 seconds by choosing right when talking to Josh (the third guy in the hallway). Now just follow the markers, until the turret section. The first spaceships spawn at set times; only the 4 by 3 grid of ships and the ship with the health bar matter how fast you kill them. Finish the mission by completing the QTE.

A Pleasant Day: Take a tight line around the corners in the first walking section. Now just follow the markers to the diner. Manually brake the car park as close to the curb as possible. After the cutscene, drive to the park and kill the first wave of cops. The second and third wave’s spawn is tied to Kinzie’s dialogue and won’t spawn before the line is finished. Get to the fountain and stand where the launcher spawns. Reload exploiting with the rocket launcher makes this section really fast. Aim firstly for cars (if they are not too close, then fences. Simply shoot at the sheriff's feet, then there is no chance to miss him.

The Fundamentals: Get in the nearest car (one always spawns just to the left of you by the road), and head to the military base. Grab the Eagle in the middle of the base and fly towards the Zin tower. The Void is on the top most platform, and will be invisible when you fly over it. Get the eagle ~10 meters above the platform and jump out. If you are not high enough, the void will not spawn; if this happens, you might as well reset. You can fall on top of the void and get right in if you hit the enter vehicle button at just the right time (I mash the button just before I hit it - if you mash to much you will get out again). This Void will be used for the rest of the run: it is important to keep it until you can save it in your garage after this mission. From here just use the quest waypoint to get to Friendly Fire. Park the Void outside, and buy the SMG with a damage upgrade (the shotgun is also an option, but I find the SMG's more reliable). Get back in the Void, kill the police and fly south west towards the neighbourhood nearby. Blow up all the Zin here and fly west to Kinzie’s warehouse. Trigger the dialogue by getting the trigger on the inside of her warehouse and return to the void. If you are extremely fast, you can skip some of Kinzie's dialogue here, but this is very tight. If you do not skip it, fly north east to behind the nearby gas station (where one of the clusters will spawn next mission), and wait for the dialogue to finish.

Bending the Rules + Blazin': Accept the quest and save the void to your garage after the cutscene. Grab the cluster you are at, then go east for the second cluster. Only grab it once the music in your void starts playing, and then grab the southern cluster last. You can pick the clusters up while in the void to skip the animations (if you are not comfortable with this, exit the void while flying low, grab the cluster and call the void from the garage). Now head to the last cluster. I have made this route to avoid some dialogue from Kinzie playing twice; if you were too slow picking up the third cluster, she might repeat some dialogue losing time. Wait for the powers menu prompt and buy both. You can complete the running and jumping tutorial faster than Kinzie can talk, so you should finish this easily in time. Now, just complete blazin' to finish the mission; the only real timesave apart from taking optimal lines is grabbing the second to last checkpoint with a jump from the ground instead of jumping from building to building.

Hot and Cold: Accept the quest and get the void from the garage. Fly over to the first booster and shoot the Zin on the rooftop (you can shoot them while flying towards them as well). You only need to kill them on one side of the generator, as they are too slow to go around it and shoot you. If you park your Void close to the generator, you can get back in it while disabling the generator, skipping the animation (if this is too hard, just call the void from the garage while in the animation). The warden fight next is probably the hardest part of the bad ending route. After killing the Zin near the main generator, park your Void pointing to the generator, about 1 to 2 meters from it. Disable the generator, enter the Void while in the animation, and hold the 'descend' button. This should ragdoll the warden as he spawns: kill him with the Void guns, exit and absorb him for a quick kill. If you miss this quick kill, use you SMG with the reload exploit. In the tutorial section, select the power before being asked to. Also, you can kill the Zin faster by freezing them and running into them to kill them. Use your SMG to kill the warden.

The Real World: Accept the quest and spawn the void. Fly towards the waypoint. Exiting the Void while flying near the rooftop will put you on it. Enjoy the long, unskippable cutscenes. After getting the gun off the Zin trooper, shoot it as soon as you can. This will remove the stealth lock and allow you to sprint earlier than usual. Run to the end, ignoring all Zin. At the final shootout, if you are doing Any% you can headshot the Zin easily for some free respect (we will need this later). Fly the ship out and into space.

Hack the Planet: Accept the quest and the void. Fly to Planet Zin, do the hack and get back in the void. Blow up both waves of police and portals while in the void (these always spawn in the same places, so you can prefire them). Now head for the curb opposite Planet Zin, to a dark spot on the pavement. The CID will spawn here, just spam the interact button to capture him. Hop back into the void and fly towards the start of the platforming activity while the dialogue plays.

Break on through: The void will sometimes dive sharply after the game reloads, so fly high to avoid going into the water. As long as you finish the Rift faster than CID can do his dialogue, you are doing this split optimally.

Power Element Training: Spawn a void and get to the Broken Shillelagh. Once again switch to the element before you are prompted to.

Power Up CID: After you gain control from the previous mission, load you autosave. This puts you much closer to the start of the mission. Call a void and accept the quest. Fly to the old crib ruins and get into the trigger - don't bother trying to save this Void, just call for a new one after the cutscene. Fly to the marker, and kill as many Zin as you can before Kinzie talks about the bounce gun. Make sure to stand in front of the crate as soon as you can grab it. Kill of the remaining Zin, and park your Void in front of the CID's facing right. This lets you activate a CID, enter the Void while in animation, immediately exit the Void again and try on another CID. After activating the third one, get in the Void and start flying to where the marker will be. Just wait here and kill the Zin. Fly to the power plant (again before the marker appears), and get into position to kill the Zin there before they spawn. Get the generator and wait. Now, do not try to walk to the second generator before being asked to; this will cause a mission fail after getting the next checkpoint. Instead, wait on the roof within range of CID, and wait until the game prompts you. Get a Void to the next generator, and get back to CID to freeze him. Now, some murderbots will spawn: we will use them to our advantage. There is a 15/16 chance at least one of these murderbots has a Lasergun Arm (the green weapon). Kill a murderbot with one, and keep flying the Viod close to it to stop it from despawning. Once the final car has come (it spawns at around 20 seconds remaining), grab the Lasergun arm and wait for the warden. Hit him with freeze power, and kill him with the gun before he jumps away. In the tutorial section, throw the enemies into each other to save a little bit of time.

Prof. Genki's Mind Over Murder: If your void from the previous mission is still there, sometimes it will have a speed boost - I do not know why. If anyone finds out why, please do tell, because it would be a huge time save to the run if we could get this consistently. Once you get to the marker, just complete the activity; practice makes perfect on this split.

Miller-Space: Spawn yet another void, and fly over to the Broken Shillelagh. Walk forward once you’re in the hackerspace, into the arena-like part. Blow up all the things as fast as possible in 2D (you can kill the tanks in one shot if you are close to them). Drive through the level, shooting the gate keys as early as possible. At the top of the downhill ramp connecting the second and third gate keys, you might be too fast, so wait for the marker to appear. Wait out the trap; if you are running Any%, shoot the tanks for some nice respect (you will get it although the game does not tell you). Get on the bike as early as possible, and drive with optimal lines (the handbrake is your friend in the tight corners). After getting off the bike, reload from the checkpoint to skip some dialogue. If you are running Bad Ending, go through the red door; timing ends upon hitting the marker. Congratulations, Zinyak fooled you!

----------------------------------------------END OF BAD ENDING---------------------------------------

If you are running any%, instead take the blue door. The text adventure is always the same; the answers are

• APPROACH THE COMPUTER
• IM A SLAVE
• I AM A SLAVE
• FLY TOWARDS THE PURPLE STAR
• ENTER THE PURPLE STAR
• DRINK THE WINE
• WAKE UP
• MAKE 2 MARTINI GLASSES OUT OF COCONUTS
• OFFER THE ARCHITECT A DRINK
• YOUR MOM'S A SLAVE
• I'M SORRY...
• I SAID I'M SORRY...
• I WANT TO RESCUE MATT MILLER
• AND WHO'S THAT?
• THEN WHERE'S MATT?
• LET'S DO THIS
• I KNOW YOU CAN BEAT HIM, MATT
• PUNCH KILLBANE (3X)
• TIME TO GO, MATT
• PICK UP THE PHONE

Matt's Back: Accept the mission on the ship. When in the mech suit, try to be airborne as much as possible. If the ceiling is too low to be airborne, shoulder bash to go fast. Follow the quest markers until you find Matt. In the next room, stand in front of the doors the Zin spawn in: they will just stand in the door and shoot you, but they can't kill you. Kill stragglers, and finish them by luring them out when the timer stops. Now go to the final open room; use your rockets to kill groups of enemies, and your lasers to kill single targets. The waves of enemies always come from the same doors, so spawncamp them. After the final wave, go to the ship before being prompted to. In the turret section, kill the space ships apart from each other for full respect. At the end, you can shoot the circuit board on the right as soon as you can see it, saving a tiny amount of time.

The Warden Stomp: You do not need to select this mission, just enter the simulation. This is the hardest Warden fight in the run. If you use the reload exploit right, you can two-cycle (i.e. two freeze powers) the warden with your SMG. In the tutorial, using the stomp in the center of the enemies will kill everyone (expect in the round with the two groups of three apart).

Fight Club: The activity is right where you spawn after the last mission. In the first wave, use telekinesis to throw the enemies into each other. In the second wave, either use telekinesis twice on each enemy to kill them, or use the balls (I find these too janky to be reliable). Nightblade always spawns on one of the two side platforms. I find the freeze power and punches/kicks works the best on him.

De Plane Boss: For this first mission, we first stop by the Friendly Fire on the way to the Broken Shillelagh; hack it for a discount, and buy the Heavy SMG with as many upgrades as you can (this will be our main weapon for the rest of the run). Damage matters most, after that accuracy, and finally clip size (reload time and clip size do not really matter because of the reload exploit). Also, stock up on ammo for the SMG. Now run to the Broken Shillelagh. Run through the plane, ignoring all enemies. After the cutscene, platform back. After you spawn in the club, take the stairs down, and jump over the railing to the right to drop right in front of Veteran Child. Kill him and his clones with your new and improved SMG, until you hear "Kinzie, a little help here?". This triggers the disintegrator to spawn, use it to clean up. If you can line up two Veteran Children, they will die in one shot.

The following three missions can be completed in any order you fancy. I am putting them in the order they are in the quest log. For any of these missions, to start it always go into the simulation, and use the portal in the south of the central island, and finally spawn a Void to go to the Broken Shillelagh.

The Boss Goes to Washington: Go up the stairs to the left of Pierce, and go into the room on the right to find the crate with SMG's. Collect them and the other weapons (watch out not to grap the cans accidentally). Make sure to get full health, and get right up in Paul's face. If you shoot rockets using the reload exploit, he cannot laser twice before he is dead. In the rooftop section, kill the cans with headshots from your pistol to conserve SMG ammo if necessary. Shoot rockets at Paul before being prompted, and wait at the spot where Pierce's helicopter comes down. In the section with the statue, I find it most consistent to hit Paul with the combo, hit him three times when down, and then blocking for another combo. Doing this three times should let you finish Paul off.

King of Stilwater: When finding the first group of thugs, kill the one with the gun first (he always spawns at the back). Kill the rest with the gun while walking towards the church. Kill a thug with an SMG there, and finish off the rest with the SMG. Now just follow the markers, while using your trusty SMG. Note that the markers and spawns of enemies are always the same in this mission, as Kinzie says. When you hear "This is starting to drag out too long", get the rocket launcher. You can use it on the regular enemies, but be sure to save 4 shots for the end. As soon as you see 'checkpoint reached', go to Ben King, and kill the enemies there. Walk around to the front of the Church: Anthony should spawn there. Kill him quickly with two rockets to skip some dialogue. Now go down the road, and kill Tanya with two more rocket shots.

From Asha with Love: Probably the mission with the most waiting. Follow the markers, and shoot the lights and guards when prompted. In the section with the boxes, it is possible to skip half a cycle for the last guy, but it barely saves any time. Go through some more vents and kill more guards (using the SMG) to find the boss battle. The first wave of enemies comes from the left side, so await them there, and clean up the rest. In the boss fight, use the reload exploit if necessary to immediately shoot her, and then the coils. Being crouched will stop the knockback from the sniper rifle. All enemies on the floor, and even Asha going down can be ignored, as killing the evil you while Asha is down still completes the mission.

Emergency Situation: Go into the simulation, and use the portal in the south of the central island again. Go to the marker, and wait for CID to spawn. Be careful not to park the Void on him, as this can push him into the floor and softlock you. During this missions, keep going to the markers before being told to. At the first and third relay, you do not need to get out of the Void, just shoot the relay(s). After the final relay, go to the portal, and throw the clones in. When the throwback clone spawns, kill him using the SMG and the explosive barrels with telekinesis. When the two clones spawn, focus one down first, as you then have to carry them less far. Once they are back in the portal, spawn a final Void and exit it into the marker. Freeze power and reload glitch should make for an easy 2-cycle. Complete the tutorial as normal.

...the Very Next Day: Go into the portal you spawn next to, and activate the mission. In Streets of Rage, the fastest movement is to jump and divekick. Try to line up enemies so that you can divekick them all at once, and end up on the right side of the screen. Use the weapons the enemies drop if possible, else just divekick. Even the bosses will die very easily to repeated divekicks, although they sometimes hit you in a scripted way. In the mech suit, go to the markers, again being airborne as much as possible, and bashing elsewhere. When walking into the big room with the slanted platforms, go over to the far left first. A ball enemy will spawn here first. Kill the rest of the enemies, focusing on the balls first, as these pose the only real threat. Kill the last enemies close to the door on the far end of where you entered, and go to the markers to finish the mission.

Death from Above: Go to the Broken Shillelagh as normal, and finish the tutorial. Nothing more to it.

When a Plan Comes Together: Probably the most boring mission of the run. Loadwarp (i.e. load your autosave) to spawn next to a portal, and enter it. Go back into the simulation, and choose the portal on the far west of the map. Go to kinzies warehouse. Once the enemies spawn, you can hit them with a power element before the grenades hit. Kill the rest with your SMG, and spawn a Void to kill everyone outside. Grab the marker outside on foot, then use the Void to go to the roof. Wait by the warehouse for Pierce and Ben to enter the car, and guide them. It is basically an autoscroller, just make sure to get the roadblocks as soon as you can. At the end of the heli section, make sure to be flying at the height of the buildings by the water - if you are not, then the heli circles around until you are. Kill everyone on the killing floor, it is again almost an autoscroller. Kill Genki, and go into the lift. Now time for another autoscroller: here you can amuse yourself by reload exploiting the rocket launcher, which for some reason fires upon clicking in this mission. The mission ends when you are teleported back into the ship.

All Hands on Deck: Kill everyone on the ship using headshots from the Alien Rifle. You might not have enough ammo for the Murderbot, then use the Alien SMG instead. Get the bombs, and get the Alien Rifle (which is useless for us). Plant the first bomb, ignoring all enemies. When planting the second bomb, get the Health 1 upgrade, and the SMG Dual Wield upgrade. This should give you enough health to get out, ignoring all enemies.

Talkie Talkie: Just talk to Matt Miller. Yep, that's it. Shortest mission in the game. To get back up to the simulation again quickly, use the stairs in the same room as Miller.

He Lives: Use the portal on the central island again, and spawn a Void. Go to the same Friendly Fire again, and equip the Rocket Launcher with at least 2 explosion damage upgrades. Put the rest of your money into SMG damage and ammo for the rocket launcher and SMG. Go to mission start, and kill the mob using the rocket launcher. Kill the ball with the rocket launcher, then jump upstairs and kill the guards with the rocket launcher. Now go into the room where Keith is. Follow the markers (ignoring enemies), and go to the roof. Kill all the CID's with your SMG's. Now disable the satellite as quickly as you can (you will usually need to kill everyone within line of sight, but the AI can be pretty bad and you can get lucky if just one or two guys can see you). This finishes the mission.

Hello Teacup: Spawn a Void and fly to mission start. Get back in the Void after mission start, and fly to the building which CID points out. Talk to Kinzie, and as soon as you can move grab a car. For some reason, you can only grab cars that aren't parked. Go to the next marker before being prompted, and ram the police car. Now go to the park before the marker shows up. When disabling the speakers, you can walk to the first one, then walk to the fountain to get the Dubstep gun. Now use a car to get from speaker to speaker. Use the corners of buildings to trick the propaganda trucks. When facing Cyrus, first shoot the three cops chasing you, then just focus down Cyrus while leading the rest of the cops. Talk to Kinzie to end the mission.

We have the Technology: Go to the portal in the south of the center island, and spawn a Void to go to mission start. Get back in the Void, and go to the marker. In what crate the CPU is RNG. Shoot the alien tech on the lower two platforms, and collect them using your Void. Then get the one above, and go to the dock (the time limits in this game are a joke with the Void). Get the closest modules first, then shoot the last two and collect them both. If one of the modules falls into the water, it is automatically collected. Spawn a new Void, and go ahead of Gat to the final dock. Kill all enemies there, and wait for Shaundi to end the mission.

Batteries not Included: One of the most annoying missions. Go into the portal, and go back into the simulation to the portal in the north-east of the map. The start of mission is right by it. Enter it, and spawn a Void to go to the batteries; they are always in the same place. At the first battery, don't bother killing the enemies, just interact with the battery and spawn a new Void. At the second, kill all enemies, and disable the one generator (if new enemies spawn, hope they don't hit you. If they hit you, either kill them, or just pray they don't hit you again, which is definately possible). At the third battery, repeat this with two generators. At the final battery, repeat this with two more generators (you can see why this mission gets annoying real fast). If you get low on health during this mission, replenish with Health upgrade 2. Now just drive the tank to the warehouse - shooting the cars ahead of you only makes you flip, so just ram them out of the way.

Grand Finale Part One: Loadwarp for the last time, enter the portal and go to the marker in the ship. It does not significantly matter which team you take where in the grand finale, so just take the one you like. First complete the autoscroller on the car, then carry the Key on the overway to the building. Dump the Key by the front door. When hacking, you can hide under the ramp; the enemies won't chase you much there, and the key has no real chance of getting destroyed. Make sure you do not get hit by a power grenade when the timer runs out, as the Key needs to be carried using telekinesis. When in the system, firstly turn around and jump up (a fully charged unupgraded jump can just make it). Stomp the breaker there, then continue to the next two. Run ahead until you see two tanks on platforms. Take one, and shoot all enemies on the platforms to the side of it. Go to the other side, and do the same. Now go onto the platform where the enemies were: here you can now peacefully disable the devices. Again run ahead, until you are almost at the very end. Here are two more tanks. Use these to take out the relays before being prompted to. Now you can sit back and relax until the Key is done.

Grand Finale Part Two: As soon as you enter the simulation, restart from checkpoint. This allows you to spawn a Void. Use it to go to the platforms, and kill the Zin. Watch out as your gun can really quickly destroy the portals accidentaly. At the end of the defend timer, you can either kill and absorb the warden or just hope it does not destroy your Void. If it does destroy your Void, you can just spawn another one. Rinse and repeat for the second and third portal. When escaping the simulation, exit the Void close to the portal, run into it and spawn another Void.

Grand Finale Part Three: Run to the markers, ignoring all enemies. At the locked door, there is a hidden timer, so just wait and kill Zin. Once Gat says "F*ck it", go to the door and get the power armor. Go down the chute, there is no way to speed this up. Once on the floor, go to the lit door. Ignore all enemies, shoot the conduits, and make your escape. Getting to the bottom of the chute ends this mission.

Grand Finale Part Four: When killing Zinyak, it is possible to immeadeately get Zinyak stuck in the ceiling, although I do not know how to replicate this consistently. Either way, just shoot him while not getting shot yourself too much. Phase 2 is throwing CID's. Circling around Zinyak while throwing the CID's makes this phase trivial. Once the barrier is broken, you can hide in the side of the arena until you have to destroy the generators. For consistency, it is best to kill all enemies on the platform (unless they are just spawning in), and then disable the generator. The buff power combined with another power and shooting works best (note that an unupgraded freeze power does not freeze enemies long enough to get the generator). Shoot Zinyak and complete the QTE. Time ends when you rip off Zinyak's head.

This is the route I have come up with. If you have any additions or questions, feel free to message me! Good luck on any runs.