The Darkness(2007)

List of Potential Sequence Breaks

Zaktualizowany 2 years ago przez Indextic

This is a list of potential skips that I tested with hacks to see whether or not it was worthwhile to try to find a way to achieve them. This is meant to be used as a guide to determine which skips should be looked for, or if a powerful glitch is found, which skips will be available.

This was all tested on emulator, and there always exists the possibility that things which crash or otherwise do not work on emulator may behave differently on console. However, from my testing, I've concluded that The Darkness emulation is pretty solid aside from lag and graphics, so I don't have any reason to believe there would be a difference on console.

An important thing to note about skips involving Darkness powers or Darklings is whether or not they get acquired at the next loading trigger. When you skip a Darkness power, such as Creeping Dark or Demon Arm, you will receive them once you hit the loading trigger for the next area. This means that if you were able to skip Demon Arm, you wouldn't be able to use it to prop fly across the trenches, but you would be able to use it everywhere else in the run. Darklings, however, do not work like this. If you skip a darkling, you cannot use it at any point in the run.

It is also very important to note that these skips are NOT currently achievable. They are only theoretically possible.

If you are a dedicated glitch hunter, I suggest double checking the veracity of the claims I make here. I believe I have been thorough in my testing, but there always remains a possibility that I missed something, and I would hate for a potential trick to not be found because I mistakenly assumed it wasn't possible.

If you think of anything missing from this list, please let me know over discord or twitter. I am willing to test any ideas sent my way, and I will update this document as new discoveries are made and new theories are tested.

Chapter 1

You could skip the Darkness awakening, Creeping Dark, and Berserker darkling if you can escape the cemetery.

There is an invisible wall surrounding the cemetery up until the moment the Berserker darkling opens the cemetery gate. To do this skip, you would need a way past the invisible wall around the cemetery wall. Simply jumping up to the wall is not enough.

If you were to skip the awakening and/or Creeping Dark, you would need a way past the gate to Canal.

You will acquire the Darkness and Creeping Dark once you reach Chinatown. The Berserker will be skipped entirely, meaning you can't use darklings until Gunner or later.

If there were a way to escape Butcher's restaurant before finishing his dialogue at the van, you can continue to Hunterspoint.

However, since you skip the trigger that allows you to pull out guns and the Darkness, you would not be able to fight any enemies until you reach Hunterspoint. It would be pretty difficult to survive.

I do not currently have any leads on how one could escape the restaurant. It seems like it would involve some kind of clipping method which does not yet exist.

You could skip Roach if there were a way to get onto the fire escape.

SOLVED: (found by wrathbody)

You could skip the Gunner darkling if you manage to hit the Canal loading trigger before the train kills you.

SOLVED??

You could enter the orphanage from Grinder's Lane after burning the money if you can get past the fence.

There is an invisible wall above the fence, so you need some other way around it. The invisible wall extends all the way to the top of the map.

Impossible Sequence Breaks

Trinity Church loading trigger does not exist at any point in the chapter.
Grinder's Lane is not set up until after the cutscene with Jenny and Jimmy. The money pile does not exist yet.
No Gun Hill triggers exist. Eddie is not in the apartment.
Orphanage crashes on load from both entrances until the Grinder's Lane money is burned.
City Hall crashes on load at all points in the chapter.
Lower East Side crashes on load from Canal.
Lower East Side loading trigger from Chinatown does not exist until Butcher's number is dialed.
Butcher's number in Jenny's apartment is uninteractable until she walks to the couch.
Cannot skip the Harry cutscene as it triggers the Jenny/Jimmy news cutscene.

Chapter 2

You could skip Demon Arm and/or Kamikaze darkling if you can get past the invisible barrier surrounding the trenches.

SOLVED: (found by brandonltxxp)

You (seem to?) need to crouch while jumping to make this work.

This video shows the Demon Arm being used to position a chair used to jump out of the corner of the trenches, but you can use the Creeping Dark to position the chair as well, allowing for Demon Arm skip. By pressing R1/RB right in front of a prop, the Creeping Dark won't be summoned and the prop gains a bit of momentum in the direction you're facing.

The chair does not have to be perfectly upright, but it does have to allow for more height than you can get by just standing on it when it's on its side. It's okay if the chair breaks into pieces, as long as you can get those pieces in the corner.

In an any% speedrun, there is no reason to skip the Demon Arm. I have yet to test if Kamikaze skip is worth attempting. It may require Darkness Level 2 for a quick and consistent setup. This is a weird place to write this but I guess I don't have anywhere else to document this thought right now lmao

You could enter the Hills before talking to Anthony if you can get past the gate. Returning with the Darkness Guns opens the entrance to the sewers.

There is a very easy way to get out of bounds in the village. By jumping on the head of the horse and then jumping on the light near it, you can jump over the wall. However, everything out there is completely solid. There does not seem to be any way to drop down into the Hills, but I don't know that for certain.

You can skip the Hills entirely if you can get into the hatch leading to the sewers.

To do this skip, you would have to get directly into the sewers entrance. Just getting into the room behind Anthony is not enough for this skip. The hatch is closed, and cannot be opened by the player.

As stated above, there is an easy way to get out of bounds. However, using that for this skip seems even less plausible than using it for entering the Hills.

The entrance to the sewers is directly below the path leading into the village from the trenches. If there ever were a way to clip directly downward, this would be a great place to utilize it.

As with other Darkness power skips, you will acquire the Darkness Guns once you proceed into the sewers.

You can skip the Lightkiller darkling if you can get past the giant metal door OR if you can get under the water's kill plane.

SOLVED

Impossible Sequence Breaks

You cannot use the pipe in the village to reach the Castle entrance. There is no loading trigger present.

Chapter 3

City Hall can be accessed early if you can get there before the train kills you.

SOLVED

Black Hole can be skipped if you reach the Turkish Baths ladder.

As with other Darkness power skips, the Black Hole will be acquired once you proceed to the next area.

I have no leads on how to do this. Going backwards through the ambush area would require clipping through two closed doors, and the only other path to Turkish Baths takes you right past Ernie anyway. On top of that, I don't know any way past the gate right behind Ernie.

This seems very unlikely and useless.

Impossible Sequence Breaks

Trinity Church trigger does not exist until the phone call to Eddie is made.
Gun Hill triggers do not exist until after you talk to Sarah. This is irrelevant for any% as Early City Hall skips Sarah and Gun Hill entirely.
Ambush area of City Hall is not set up until you have the briefcase.
The video of this is lost, but: You can't use the noclip glitch and escape the pier. I used memory hacking to place my position inside the Lower East Side loading trigger while the glitch was active, but it did nothing. To activate the glitch, you use the guy sitting on the edge of the pier. Jump off while looking up at him, and activate the kick cutscene before you hit the water. Doing this activates the noclip glitch for about three seconds, before the ladder climbing cutscene plays and cancels the glitch.

Chapter 4

You could finish the chapter immediately if you can get past the castle door at the start.

This would probably be the biggest skip in the game, barring any full chapter skips.

There is a barrel along the tracks the cannon is on that you could use for prop flying. However, the entirety of the castle seems to be solid. Even on its right side, where it is missing textures, there does not seem to be any way to enter. It is extremely hard to prop fly over there in the first place.

If there is a way to break into the door from the front, you may need to shoot the plane out of the sky first, as it can potentially do massive damage and move you out of position. This can be done with any weapon. I suggest the Darkness Guns, as the rifle is too slow and the pistols are a bit weak.

Impossible Sequence Breaks

You cannot get the cannon shell early by following the rails at the start. Even if you could get past the closed door, the shell does not exist until after the tank section.

Chapter 5

There really aren't any potential sequence breaks here. Everything in this chapter is dependent on completing the part before it. If the boat to the lighthouse exists anywhere on the Pier 19 map, I have yet to find it. I don't imagine it could ever spawn in early.