So I wanna ask a few stuff about the game because I've been trying to practice this game as a speedrun for a while and would like to ask if you have any glitches found as resources for me. Like the VHS Tape glitch where you could save time (I still don't know how you manage to do that), and I heard you can also skip cutscenes in the game, but I'm not too sure where yet.

GGs on the run. I haven't played since a day or two after I did my last PB so it's nice to have a reason to get back to this game.

I was running on the original release version, the 1.0 or whatever the devs have decided to call it, so there's some stuff that may not work anymore. If anything from my run has been patched out I'll need to delete/throw a fresh run together/make a legacy category if it's still possible for people to get the original version. I'm assuming this is the current Steam build you're on?

For VHS stacking I would try to get a timing of alternating between the select and cancel buttons (I'm a controller user, which shouldn't make a difference but you never know with some games) and, when you get it right, it allows you to start playing the next tape while the previous one is running. In my PB I have all 3 tapes going simultaneously at one point which is a nice timesave. I'll test if this still works on my end in the next couple days.

1.0 also had early Oars, although I never did a run after it was discovered by someone on the Steam forums. You could grab the Oars through the back wall of the shack and totally skip the walnuts/suitcase. AFAIK the devs patched this out but I've not tested it myself.

There was an OOB that was seemingly useless, where you could get above the alley by climbing some weird geometry by the door to the park. The devs confirmed to me that the loading zones don't work in a way where you could use this, which is too bad. If it had worked it would've entirely skipped hospital. This was on their to-do list to patch out so it may be gone:

I found another OOB in the first section of dark world the last time I booted the game up. Another case of climbing geometry and getting above the map but if you stepped wrong you would void out. It's slow though. Even if it let you skip a key it was probably not a timesave but I'll check to see if it's still there and do some testing on it soon.

The cutscene in the shack where you get the Oars was skippable but I don't know the exact circumstances. My assumption is that there's a loading zone which is active after you actually take the Oars and you can simply avoid it. Again, needs to be tested on the current build.

I did a little testing to try and skip the cutscene on the Hospital roof, after you burn the corpses, where you fall off. I haven't been able to skip it yet but it's worth testing until we have a better idea of how big the loading zone is on that narrow walkway and whether you can jump around it or climb a wall like the OOBs.

I don't know of any way to skip normal cutscenes once they've actually started, minus the VHS stacking glitch.

Another thing to check: I was able to just run past the boss straight to the save/load point, pressing the action button as he grabbed me once or twice along the way. Need to test to see if it still works.

Good catch on the walnut behind the Oars shack; I'd only grabbed it in casual and assumed it always gave you the ERROR instead of a moonstone but I guess that only happens if you grab all four. I also noticed you jumping as you grabbed a couple items/activated objects early in the run; is this getting you in range of interaction faster or were you just doing it because why not?

I’ll wait for you to stream the game again and test shit out on the game to give my more knowledge. The VHS glitch doesn’t seem to work a lot on keyboard so I’m just gonna guess and say it’s a controller thing. The jumping seems to get me a faster interaction (learnt that from doing Outlast glitchless%). The hitboxes on some items are big enough to interact when you jump, and some aren’t. I think this game can go below 34 minutes, if I don’t screw up a lot in the game, but we’ll have to see.

Okay, from testing on stream and a little bit after today. Definitely useful stuff:

• VHS stacking still totally works. I found the best method is to put the first tape in and, as soon as the static shows up, pause/unpause the game and then press Next and then Use. You can do this pretty fast and it works on keyboard. Haven't checked the amount of timesave compared to watching them in order but it's probably somewhere around a minute. I also tried doing it on the walnut cracking/moonstone insertions into the briefcase, but I need to compare it with the intended method before saying if it's useful.

• I was able to skip the cutscene in the shack again. I think the loading trigger is close to the window. Grab the Oars, read the note, then move back to the corner past where the Oars were and head straight to the door. Save 25-30 seconds.

• You can sometimes grab ladders from the floor below them by jumping and pressing Use while looking at the ceiling. Specifically, you can do this twice in Hospital to skip getting Roof Ladder Key. The sequence is: after you come up the lift you turn right, to the little dead end area. Grab the ladder above you over there, which leads to Tape 3. Do the ledge walking segment over to the overhang roof where the Herb is, then use the other ladder to go down and get Tape 2. Then head to the VCR and Tape 1. I'm guessing this probably saves 10-15 seconds but haven't timed it.

Possibly useful stuff/more testing needed:

• It may be possible to get Hospital Key C from under the corpse pile without burning it. I'm not confident in this but I think the key is already loaded in under the pile and it could be a matter of angle/position to target it instead of the corpse pile text triggers.

• The cutscene on the walkway after you get Hospital Key C: It doesn't seem possible to just jump around it on that walkway but I found a spot with wonky collision that gains you height. It's right underneath where the side path of the walkway connects with the main path. I didn't get high enough from there to get back on the walkway but it's worth more testing. Additionally, it could be possible to grab the ladder leading to the roof from underneath it/next to the corpse pile if we could gain a little height off the scaffolding geometry near it but I've had no luck yet.

• I tested a bit with keyboard/mouse in addition to controller and it felt like I could climb geometry a little easier, including one I hadn't successfully climbed on controller before, thanks to the space bar being so mash-friendly. There are sequence breaks if we can find the right setups in a few spots: Subway to skip getting the Maint Room Key/Janitor's Key and the cutscene on the downtown platform, which would save a really nice chunk of time. Also, Alleyway before and after opening the Death Key door which blocks your way which would skip the first clock sequence (although I don't know if this would softlock you later on the second clock sequence). Probably others but I haven't combed through the whole game with it in mind yet.

Probably useless stuff:

• The old alleyway OOB location is indeed gone, as far as I can tell.

• The dark world OOB is still there but I've yet to get somewhere useful with it; needs more testing but even if it lets you skip straight to the lift it's not likely to be a timesave due to setup.

• It didn't feel like the jump/interact made much of, if any, difference. The only time of note was a couple instances where I opened a door from the wrong side by running/jumping into it but I've never done this in a useful way.

So yeah. There's around 90 seconds of guaranteed/free timesave compared to your current run (less for me since I have VHS stacking) and if we find any reliable OOB setups elsewhere then we're talking closer to the 30/31 minute mark.

Addendum: Cutscene skip in shack is weird. I did it on stream in my casual science playthrough but I hit the cutscene trigger both times in my runs tonight. I think it's location based and you can stand just on the other side of the trigger and still activate the door but now I'm not sure.

probably not very interesting but i found an OOB in the house where the Alley Key is, it allows you to skip the first clock puzzle, however you can't go back in the alley since the door isn't open. i've been able to downgrade the game version to patch 1 (available in steam betas) and thus i was able to use the old clip to go back above the alley and enter the clock house (it's possible to interact with this door while oob). Alas the clock won't let you get the Key To Hell before you first get the Death Key which means you still have to do both clock puzzles in order to access the next area. so that only skips the Alley cutscene which isn't that long and since going oob is slower than walking it wouldn't save much (if any) time.

kinda pointless but maybe someone can use this somehow