Any% Video Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZsgshnGD10

Bone Sequence Break Tutorial 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQPFQ5j6cvo

How cycles can affect your IL attempt by taking the example of That's a Loot of Fruit

Most of the dreamworld ILs can be done in your first attempt (starting the level from the menu) as it's already good enough for getting a fast time or there are no cycles. Nevertheless, there are a few ILs with cycles where you have to wait. Well, "waiting" and "speedrun" is a contradiction. So, how do we eliminate "waiting"?

There we need to know how cycles actually work:
They move as long as you don't reach the end of the level. When you're at the end of the level showing up the leaderboard to see your reached time, the cycles are paused. When you press "Restart", the level restarts but the cycles do not reset! They continue from their position where they stopped. How does this information help?

Let's investigate us this in "That's a Loot of Fruit".
The first lap is horrible. You have to wait for the first kiwi as well as for the "kiwi-stair". Time waste of 20 seconds.

So, we gonna find out the cycle for the first kiwi.

https://abload.de/img/cycle1t3ije.jpg

Starting from the arrowhead to the arrowhead again, this kiwi cycle takes 16 seconds which means "Every 16 seconds this kiwi is at the arrowhead position". It's getting better: From your starting point, you can reach this kiwi instantly (no waiting anymore that the kiwi comes to you, you come to the kiwi).

And how does this help for the whole attempt? 
Of course, this trick is only helpful for your 2nd lap but you need to find out when you finish your 1st lap. This is some inevitable "trial and error". For this level, I got the time for you:

In order to have a perfect 2nd lap, you need to finish your first lap in around 2m02s (for PS2). You restart the level and can use the kiwi instantly. Why is this "perfect"? Well, accidentally the "kiwi-stair" is also instantly reachable but its cycle time is different, 13 seconds for curious people.

So, I think you know what happens when you finish your first lap in 2m18s?
Yes, first kiwi is still fine but the kiwi-stair ruins your attempt.

When do both cycles harmonize again?
It's after 1m05s +/- 3 seconds (for PS2). For careful readers, it's almost the time for the kiwi cycle multiplied by 4. So you get 3m07s, 4m12s, 5m17s,...

Conclusion:
Sadly, none of those times improves the section after the kiwi beginning. The cantelopes are always in the same position like when you start at 2m02s.

So, it's enough to find out the lowest time to end the 1st lap to get a perfect 2nd lap.

This thread is also interesting for Veggie Vault and other ILs whose 1st lap isn't satisfying.

How to install and setup Ratatouille (Video tutorial)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93DZ5_IEwE

Known Strategies Compendium 2024 - Edition 1.3

[Updated 08/02/2024]

Special thanks to everyone in the Ratatouille community for making all of these things possible. This project was on a long hiatus because I didn’t have a good format for it. In the end, I’ve decided to chop all this up episodically in order to get it out the door. As I go along I will make edits to the original post (no replies) for the sake of continuity. This first edition will go over more than a few notable strats. Basically everything I’ve written up to this point. From there ideally I’d follow intended mission/level order, so edition 2 would be CT, edition 3 would be KD, etc. If strats have overlapping order I'll then do them in order of discovery. Even obsolete and inferior glitches are important for this list, as it is meant to be both archival and educational. I do not boast any confidence in keeping this page updated forever, hence why I put “2024” in the title, but I will certainly attempt to do so. Thank you, and happy running.

# Contents

Introduction

Miscellaneous

Somewhere In France

Soupy Assistance

Kitchen Pipe

The City of Lights

Little Chef - Big Kitchen

# Introduction

The first glitch I ever learned for this game was the simply named [City of Lights skip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpO9sOvzk), by SuperSqank. I find this important because, of all the things in this game that we currently understand, items are definitely not one of them. This is only the tip of the iceberg for what lays dormant in this game and we cannot take any discovery for granted. To help consolidate information regarding documentation of these strategies, I’ve created informational cards that I like to call “doc cards”.

![](/static/blob/5e14w2qe.png)

In order this lists off:

- The name of the finder. If the strategy in question is old enough, or ambiguous enough, the name will simply be “Unofficial” meaning no one has or can accurately claim it. It’s possible it does have an original finder, but in the case of this it has been deemed too contested or contestable for this guide to claim any stance. Additionally, many members of the community have been known to change their name and/or disown their discoveries. This guide will simply use the name of the account(s) at the time they were discovered for the sake of consistency.
- The name of the strategy. If there are nicknames I will go over those in text, but Buy n Large these will simply be whatever the finder has deemed it, or what it has been colloquially referred to in the past. I won’t keep nicknames updated.
- The date of the discovery. If the latest known documentation has been taken after the fact, it will simply say >YY (abbrv. Year), or will specify with an asterisk.
- Proportional Timesave. Displayed as a %, this is meant to quantify the importance of the strat. While it’s true that all categories are technically arbitrary, saving 6 minutes in a 1 hour run is a lot different than saving 6 minutes in a 20 minute run. So this will equalize both of those scenarios in a kind of ranking system. If the skip is obsoleted, this will also tell you with a color change.
- Video evidence? Since this is a simple yes or no, I decided to be cute and put it in french. Sometimes there are cases where documentation is made in someone else’s place if they cannot record video, this will also be specified. There are many cases where I didn’t save video evidence and time and it was lost, this will also be specified. If reuploads exist the listing will be updated.
- Region. As I’m sure you’re well aware, Ratatouille has been released in many languages, many platforms, and many iterations. Obviously this only goes over the releases of the game on the 6th generation of consoles, but there are at least 2 discrepancies between them (bug fixes possibly). As we don’t currently have a science for it, this will simply say NTSC, PAL, and/or the language (note that PC does not differ region differences, only language). If Ratatouille is ever re-released with new differences (like a steam port), this will also be specified somehow.
- FPS. Gamecube is locked at an inconsistent 30 FPS, All other consoles are locked at 60, and PC locks at 200ish. If on PC third-party frame limiters were used, this will instead display what it was locked at. If the strat in question directly depends on FPS this will also be specified with an asterisk and I will make note of it in the review.
- Platform. Self-explanatory. Possibly redundant, but a lack of standardization makes such a thing necessary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpO9sOvzk

# Miscellaneous

Some strategies do not fit the intended order of levels/missions at all. These are either things which are applicable in multiple locations, are general rules of thumb, and one is so left field that there simply is no place in the intended order it could go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrwfnZ6Qz6M

![](/static/blob/oeog352n.png)

The elephant in the room is none other than Xander’s Pipe Clip. This is by far the most ambitious and unpredictable skip this game has seen yet, and at first glance you might not even understand why. Xander discovered that by careful, but consistent movement you can bonk a wall while sliding, and clip above every pipe/slide level in the game. But clearly you wouldn’t merely use this for a faster way to beat the level; oh no, it’s vastly more interesting. You see, when selecting these levels through the EXTRAs menu, you spawn already inside the pipe part of the pipe levels with an invisible wall preventing you from leaving into the rest of the game. This means that theoretically, if one could go around said wall, you could enter any level early, given you could also reach the entrance/exit. Xander finally made this possible with [Market Early](https://youtu.be/8shhZeDRiRA), changing our understanding of level order forever. This is one for the history books for sure. That said, the game doesn’t allow you to buy levels until a little bit after Kitchen Pipe, so even if we could get the Gusteau Points it’s hard to say this could ever work outside of low%. Additionally, the Kitchen Pipe wall has **so far** proven impassible.

# Somewhere In France

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQhiy81_lio

![](/static/blob/5ngd8w4n.png)

I would like to note this is one of the earliest documented skips we have, uploaded just a month after the speedrun.com page was created. There are multiple known methods of reaching the end of the level early, but without Emile’s trigger active, they are unfortunately rendered, as Nap42 put it, “Useless”. Specifically regarding this iteration of the incomplete skip, it abuses the fact that the roof is a sliding surface. Interestingly we can observe that surfaces which are slidable behave depending on the angle, how it becomes hard to move at all on the much flatter part. In most cases throughout the game, sliding surfaces are at an angle and curved to fit the pipe levels, and as observed earlier, even those have some behaviors we can exploit. You can do the same thing from the [other side](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvJ9cphMp0c) too. Note that this also shows that after Emile leaves an area, so too does his influence on death barriers (with the exception of what I mentioned earlier).
https://clips.twitch.tv/GracefulDeafFoxThisIsSpartaAdditionally

https://www.twitch.tv/epicnessohyeah/clip/CrypticHardPot4Head

, this “skip” is made even better by the jank that is slide platform edges. The same tech that allows Bomb hovering can just lauch Remy. I don’t know what FPS Epic was at, but as I estimated for the Market OOB later, it’s probably >85.

![](/static/blob/3ekxj5kn.png)

Originally thought to be inconsistent, but is now firmly the first viable strat in the tutorial level. This is one of my favorites because it’s one of those things that is almost self-explanatory despite no one knowing exactly why this works yet. The game’s collision is weird and lenient, let’s leave it at that.

# Soupy Assistance

![](/static/blob/7e9jv2xn.png)

Much like Firewood Jump, it’s impossible to tell who could have come up with this first because it’s so innate, but this is actually viable. Soupy Assistance is the only minigame which has absolutely no penalty for choosing wrong on the first choice (Later soup levels reshuffle, wasting time), so simply spam while loading into the level. It’s obviously going to be easier to spam jump (with default controls, even on PC where it looks like arrow keys, the Xinput reads off the face buttons, not the D-Pad) since you’d already be doing so for the cutscene. Patterns have been observed in the salad (or in this case, soup) minigames, so expect some kind of update where I talk about that.

# Kitchen Pipe

![](/static/blob/xz05014n.png)

https://discord.com/channels/420334602448797706/420334602910040064/463993944553029632

The big kahuna. What more can be said that hasn’t already? If you’ve been around for any amount of time, you know what this is. [I'll get to it, don't worry.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbLg3RgPe7Y

![](/static/blob/7n64mdoz.png)

My guess is that all the different side paths were in the interest of replay value, but it obviously makes it inconvenient for us trying to complete everything in a single session. This makes hundo a turnoff to many people, but if you’re up to the challenge then continue reading. Remy’s sliding action isn’t easy to interrupt, which will be much more relevant with Underground Fun, but basically if you bonk or even just get stuck on the wall, the game will give you back your normal jump. Luckily the floor here is also non-sliding, so you can run up it backwards for stars 64-83 and then pretty much continue the level normally. My personal advice, if you have anxiety about missing linear stars, is just to make small staggered adjustments. Don’t hold a direction, tap it over and over again so your turn is more gradual (but it’s honestly much more intuitive on an analog stick where you can properly hold a slight direction).

# The City of Lights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLOeoAyugtw

![](/static/blob/kzwr3pre.png)

Technically a small skip, but the implications are staggering to say the least. Assuming this only applies to holdable objects means that the use-case is unfortunately unique, but there’s still much we don’t know about objects, and much we don’t know about missions. So understanding how this actually works is paramount for finding more glitches in the future. In the past we’ve been able to circumvent certain missions (like touching a blocked off level trigger, or cutting a corner) but with this, The mission ends with no cutscene immediately after picking up the bone. It’s completely without precedent that we can manipulate a mission in this way.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/327853210

![](/static/blob/ynl24lle.png)

Large mission hitboxes, a theme that will appear very commonly, typically prevent you from getting onto the roof without triggering CT Preheist 3 (aka Magpie Madness), but there are two different jumps depending on what build of the game you’re on. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but from my understanding this is not properly documented or fully understood. What we know for certain is that Russian PC and USA GCN both have it, but USA PC does not. Eventually I hope to get into all the different versions and also development history of the game, and when I do or if someone else beats me to it, I’ll link it here. And I think it’s still optimal for hundo categories, cutting out the backtracking for This is a Steakout! because you can’t enter a dream world while in a preheist and there’s also no “cancel mission” button on the pause menu or anything like that.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/942296157

![](/static/blob/7z369kqz.png)

This version on the other hand works regardless of what version you’re playing and is similar to sink jump and bed jump in that you just can barely technically make it. I don’t believe sliding has anything to do with either of these, but just because it’s possible anyway please refer to Xander’s “Pipe Clip” in Miscellaneous. I also cover some sliding things during Underground Fun’s star route. As the compendium continues to get updated I hope I’ll have more to report, I’m guessing Edition 6 at the earliest.

# Little Chef - Big Kitchen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWYC8PQa0gg

![](/static/blob/qnyp21wn.png)

This could very well be the oldest full game skip period. Like many skips in this game, it's not really an abuse of the game's physics or logic, but rather a simple oversight of this checkpoint hitbox extending too far off the side of the platform. You would think it's a little strange to have a checkpoint in the exact same spot as the mission end trigger, but it's very common throughout the game. The level layouts are pretty restricted to movie accuracy, while the missions in the level are mostly linear cross-sections made up of object placements, which is why the lock-on-parkour mechanics are so heavily integrated. My guess is that having linear objectives in giant open levels was one of the major hurdles in design, so for something like a checkpoint the best they can really do is place it on top of preexisting triggers because there's not a guided relationship between level location and mission progression.

But disregarding all of that insight into the game's design, "Sink Jump" simply clears the gap similar to Bed Jump. But I guess on the bright side, there's zero difference between the backup strat and failing the optimal method.

[I'll do Underground Fun routing later, its like 12AM and I need sleep]

Load Remover + Loading Times

__Load Remover Setup__

	So to set up the load remover, you'll want to have Livesplit open, and then Right click --> Edit layout. Click on the '+' symbol, and then add a second timer. If you double click one of them, you'll see a dropdown list labelled 'Timing Method'. Change it to 'Game Time' and then do the same for the second timer, but change the second one to 'Real Time'. This is because the Load Remover pauses the timer which is set to 'Game Time' when the game is loading.  

	Now that you've set up the timers, all you need to do is Right click the main Livesplit window --> Edit Splits. In the box labelled 'Game Name', fill it in with Ratatouille (Asobo), and click enter. The Load Remover automatically activates when you do this. An easy way to check if that worked is to look for the box that says 'Deactivate'.

	The second way of setting it up works just as well. After you've done the timers in the same way, go back to Edit Layout, click the '+', go to Control, and click Scriptable Auto Splitter. Double click this, and after extracting the zip from the resources tab on speedrun.com, click Browse, and locate the .asl.
	
	The Load Remover is the most accurate method, but if, for some reason, you can't use it, instead, you must show your framerate throughout the video, and it has to be consistent. Then you can use the link below to find your Time Without Loads. The 'Full Run' column is the time for Canless and not Canless, including 1 OOB at the spiders (This is the most common route). If you didn't go OOB during this part of the run, subtract the 'OOB Duration at Spiders / Chase' time. For any other deaths in the run, add the appropriate value, according to your fps. It would be a good idea for you to put in the run description where you die, to make it easier for mods.

	https://bit.ly/PC_Loading_Times

Extra notes: Other categories haven't been entered into the table yet, so please ask in the discord for help with retiming. For most people, it only works on overlay_win2k.exe, but it works for some on overlay.exe. If you're using the original CD-ROM, the Load Remover doesn't work, so you should get the other version. Cheat% Loads are faster than Any% Loads, even though they have the same route.
	
__Any% for Console__

Here are the loading times for consoles:
Xbox - 1:46
Gamecube - 2:12
PS2 - 2:25
PS2 Emulated - Unknown
Wii - These times are inconsistent so they are manually timed

MG_PLAT (KD/KN)

There are 7 possible salad routes for the minigames in both levels. Routes 1-3 have the same chance of happening. Routes 4-6 have the same chance. Route 7 has its own chance.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/420335226992984066/793562371536715786/Salad_Routes.png

Chance of happening:
Route 1: 18.1%
Route 2: 18.1%
Route 3: 17.6%

Route 4: 13.6%
Route 5: 12.5%
Route 6: 11.9%

Route 7: 8.0%

Ratatorial: The all inclusive guide to running Any% with and without Desserted Kitchen Early

The PC Guide (version 2.2) [OUTDATED]

**Edit 2025: This is probably seriously outdated by now and is only retained for historical reference.**

In late 2018, several discoveries were made and research was done, which led to me putting up the original version of "Some notes about the PC version". This is an attempt to redo that guide with more and better organized info. This mostly covers running the game on Windows, but as far as I know, this game also runs on Linux using Wine. As usual, I appreciate suggestions and constructive criticism.

# Versions

Before we install the game and set it up, let’s look at the various versions of the game. The most well-known and well-researched versions are the US English version and the Russian version. Other versions exist, such as the UK English version (which was also included in a Disney-Pixar 3-in-1 compilation release that has Ratatouille and two other games on 1 disc), which is known to have a different installer compared to the US version and a text change on the "Mission complete" screen. There might be other differences between the US and UK versions, which are unknown right now. This guide will cover the US English version and the Russian version.

First thing to note is that the Russian version appears to be based on an earlier build of the game that was made before last-minute changes were applied to the US English version.

## Changes: Main

- The US English version comes on two discs (disc 2 is required to play the game). There are two Russian versions: one that comes on one disc, and another one that comes on three (I don't have the three-disc version, but it's probably the same, just on THREE discs).
- The US English version loads FMV cutscenes, music and dialogue from the game disc in mid-game, while the Russian version installs those alongside the rest of the game. That means that the Russian version only requires the disc in the drive for copy protection, as everything is loaded from the folder that you installed the game into. (For those who don’t know, FMV (full motion video) cutscenes are cutscenes that are stored in the game as video files, in contrast to the in-game cutscenes that the game puts together in real-time using textures, models, etc.)
- The US English version installs three executables (.exe files): GameSetup.exe (the settings program), overlay.exe (the game) and overlay_win2k.exe (a different version of the game, see the Controllers Configuration section of this guide for more info). The Russian version does not include overlay_win2k.exe, HOWEVER it includes the file called overlay.dll, which is actually the game that starts running after you launch overlay.exe. It's something you have to keep in mind when setting up the Russian version to work in conjunction with a program such as DxWnd.
- The US English version has the "Cam. Sensibility" (sensitivity) bar set to the far right by default, while the Russian version has it set in the center by default. The former is good for a controller, the latter is good for a mouse. The "Cam. Sensibility sound bug" only appears in the Russian version.
- The read-only trick (see below) does not work in the Russian version.

## Changes: The City of Lights

- There is a point in the level where you are forced to talk to Celine to start a mission. The area that the mission takes place in, contains the entrance to This Is a Steakout (one of the dream worlds). Since it's impossible to enter a dream world during a mission, you are intended to revisit that area after finishing the mission. However, a skip was found that lets you enter the area without talking to Celine, do the dream world, finish the area, THEN talk to Celine, then die and respawn at the end of the area, finishing the mission. The first part of the skip (entering the area without talking to Celine) can be done in multiple ways, all of which involve the pipe that you slide on shortly before you're intended to talk to Celine. There is Epic's way (jumping from the pipe onto the umbrella platform), Slicer's way (using the triple jump exploit by placing Remy between the wall and the pipe to gain extra height from a jump) and Tockles' way (jumping from the edge of the pipe that's further from the wall, then hugging the wall to get clipped up a little). Tockles' way is probably the easiest to perform, but while it works on GameCube and the Russian PC version, it appears that the collision of the wall was changed in the US PC version, meaning that Tockles' way does not work in the US PC version. (This only affects No Major Skips and 100%, since in Any% this level is skipped)
- The location of the rat trap that is next to Git is slightly different.
- The Russian version has a crash that can randomly happen at the beginning of the cutscene that plays when you finish the aforementioned mission. It's a very rare crash, as it was only seen by our community twice: it happened to me once, and then it happened to someone else on a casual stream. No such thing was spotted there in the US English version.

## Side note

Several piracy websites distribute a “rip” version of the US English release that lacks FMV cutscenes (see the “Changes: Main” section above to know what FMV cutscenes are). For instance, in the proper version, selecting “Play” in the main menu brings up the “Somewhere in France” title card, then plays the FMV cutscene that starts with the view of a house, then plays the in-game cutscene that starts with Remy and Emile walking. The unofficial “rip” version shows the “Somewhere in France” title card, and immediately cuts to the in-game cutscene with Remy and Emile walking. All the cutscenes in the game are skippable in all versions, but the “rip” version still saves time due to not having to play the FMV cutscenes at all. Because of that, the “rip” version is not allowed for speedrunning. The solution is to look for a physical copy or disc images of the game (e.g. ISO or CUE/BIN).

# Setup

## Installation (US English version)

So let’s say that you obtained the US English version’s two discs. First of all, insert disc 1. Depending on your Windows settings, Windows may suggest you to open the disc’s Autorun, which is what you need to do. If nothing happens, open up Windows Explorer, right-click on the disc (RAT1) and select “Open AutoPlay”. In the window that opens, press “Install”. The rest should be self-explanatory for anyone who has installed programs on their computer (inserting disc 2 will be required in the middle of installation, then you’ll have to have it inserted to play the game).

But there are some problems that one could stumble upon when installing this version.

- The first problem is that canceling the installation can make the autorun program freeze, and if you shut it down with the task manager and try to run it again, nothing will happen. The workaround is to run setup.exe (which is located on disc 1), which, depending on your Windows settings, can either be displayed as a program that is called “setup.exe” or just “setup” with a blue icon, or not visible on the disc at all. If it’s not visible, then you have to make Windows show hidden files (you can google how to do it). When you run setup.exe from the first disc, the installer program will start, and you’ll be able to install the game again.
- Another problem that can happen is that the installer can be in Japanese. I have no idea what causes that to happen. The installer will still probably be self-explanatory, except for the part where it tells you about something involving “data3.cab”, in which case it’s telling you to insert disc 2 and select the drive that disc 2 is in.

It seems that the US English version’s installer doesn’t create any desktop or start menu shortcuts. By default, the game and the settings program are located in “C:\Program Files (x86)\THQ\Disney-Pixar\Ratatouille\Rat”

## Installation (Russian version)

This version’s installer is better thought-out, just open the Autorun and install the game. However, the game will only run if the disc is inserted into the drive that it was in during installation (though there is a way to change it), so keep that in mind. Oh, and if for some reason you need to install the game on a non-Russian computer, you can use this to make Russian letters show up properly in the installer: https://pooi.moe/Locale-Emulator/

## GameSetup.exe

Once you’ve installed the game, open up GameSetup.exe (which is located inside the aforementioned folder, though if you’re using the Russian version, then you can also find it in the Start menu). You’ll be presented with several options, including “Play”, “Video options” and “Controllers configuration”.

##- Video options
If you have a decent enough computer, you can set everything to the maximum. One thing that I have to point out is that if you have one graphics card and several monitors, then the “Video Adapter” option will have several options that are all named identically after your graphics card, which actually correspond to your monitors.

##- Controllers configuration
In 1995, Microsoft introduced DirectInput as part of DirectX, and continued developing it until 2001-2002. Essentially, DirectInput was a piece of software that handled keyboard, mouse and controller inputs in Windows games. However, in 2005, Microsoft deprecated DirectInput in favor of XInput, which is intended primarily for use with the Xbox 360 controller (though several third-party controllers, such as the newer Logitech ones, support XInput as well).

Why am I telling you all this? If you have the US English version of the game, you might have noticed that there are two game executables - overlay.exe and overlay_win2k.exe. The main (and probably the only) difference between them is that the former includes what I call the “XInput mode”, while the latter handles XInput controllers the same way as DirectInput controllers.

What do I mean by that? DirectInput controllers have to be manually configured in the “Controllers configuration” menu of GameSetup.exe, that means you have to map every action (jump, run, etc.) to the controller buttons (note that the “Secondary” button slots in “Controllers configuration” are made primarily for DirectInput controller buttons). You can use the keyboard, mouse and a DirectInput controller simultaneously. (I've also been told that you can't skip FMV cutscenes with a DirectInput controller.) Meanwhile, plugging in an XInput controller (either before launching overlay.exe or while it’s running) activates the “XInput mode”, in which the game ignores any inputs from the keyboard and mouse, only accepting inputs from the XInput controller. There is no way to change the control scheme of an XInput controller.

PCGamingWiki has this article, which might be able to help you with controller setup: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Controller
It includes instructions on how to make a DirectInput controller act as an XInput controller.

Oh, and if you’re using keyboard and mouse instead of a controller, then make sure to remap the keys, as the default control scheme involves switching the right hand constantly between the mouse and the right side of the keyboard. A common type of control scheme involves movement on WASD, and the Action, Jump, Drop and Dash buttons distributed in some way over the left side of the keyboard and the mouse buttons (so that you’re able to move with WASD, move the camera with the mouse, and press those four buttons without reaching far). In case you’re wondering what are the Action Left and Action Right buttons on the Minigame tab, those are for the minigame with the blue and red (or blue and orange) switches.

## Framerate

Let me introduce the concept of framerate to those who don’t know what it is. As most of you probably realize, an animated picture is a collection of still images played in succession. These still images are frames. Framerate is measured by how many new frames can the game output in a second.

The console versions of this game stay in the normal range, with most of them running at 60 fps (frames per second), except for the GameCube version, which runs at 30 fps. (Note that the European console versions run at 50 fps (25 fps on GameCube), it’s that way due to historical reasons.) However, Asobo Studio made an odd move while porting the game (and several of their other games) to Windows - they set the maximum framerate to 500 fps. Back then it wasn’t a big issue, since computers couldn’t run the game at anywhere near that framerate, but now, with computers becoming more powerful, they come closer to running the game at that value. Sadly, several things change for the worse or even break at high framerates. Because of that, limiting the framerate (to a lower value than the one at which the game normally runs on your computer) using a frame-limiting program is allowed for speedrunning.

Some of the framerate-related things:

- First of all (and this is not entirely for the worse), the higher the framerate, the shorter are the loading times. The problem is that the US English version loads some stuff from the game disc, so playing the game on a powerful computer without limiting the framerate may be bad for your disc drive.
- The physics change depending on the framerate. It’s hard to tell what exactly is different, but several movement-related tricks (such as the major skip and the plate trick) become harder or impossible on higher framerates.
- On high framerates, the shrimp in the Desserted Kitchen get stuck inside the buckets that they are supposed to jump out of. This is known as the “shrimp bug”. This part of the game can still be beaten without framerate limiting, by opening and closing the pause menu as a shrimp is attempting to jump out of a bucket.

##- Reference values
Plate trick (squeezing yourself between the plates and the ceiling under the table of the first lobster in the Desserted Kitchen):

- On 120 fps and below, the trick is possible.
- On 130 fps, the trick is barely possible with an additional jump.
- On 140 fps and above, the trick appears to be impossible.

Shrimp bug (shrimp aren’t able to jump out of the buckets):

- On 160 fps and below, the shrimp bug is not present.
- On 170 fps and above, the shrimp bug is present.

##- Frame Limiting Tutorial
You are allowed to use any framerate limiter that works with this game, but here I’ll teach you the basics of framerate limiting using RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS for short).

1. Download RTSS from https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download.html and install it.
2. Launch RTSS and click on its icon in the tray (the part of the task bar in the bottom right) to open it up.
3. The left side of the window lists the profiles. You can either use the global profile (limit the framerate for every game application) or click "Add" at the bottom, navigate to the game folder and select overlay.exe. Note that the Russian version’s framerate can only be limited using the global profile.
4. On the right, there are options. The one you need is "Framerate limit". Click on the number to the right of "Framerate limit", type the number of frames per second that you want and press Enter. You can also turn on "Show own statistics" which is the FPS counter.
Minimizing RTSS makes it run in the background with your settings. If you close RTSS, it will stop running.

## The Read-Only Trick

For a long time, people have known that on the console versions of this game you can remove the memory card to save time, as the game cannot save your progress in that case. But while the PC ports of Asobo Studio's later games include an autosave option that you can turn off, the PC version of this game forces autosave. However, it was found that if you create the save file, set the options as you need, and then make the save file read-only, then the game will try to save once, and after it fails, it won't try to autosave ever again until you close the game, meaning that the trick saves time (assuming you can navigate the "continue without saving" menu quickly enough). Your progress will still be saved into the RAM, and by that I mean that if you quit to the main menu and press "Play", the game will put you at your last save point, but if you load the read-only (or any other) save file using the profile menu, it will start from where you were in the save file. It should be noted that this "trick" does not work in the Russian version, which crashes when it tries to save into a read-only file, but it works in the US English version.

I'll go over the steps for this trick.

1. Open the game and create a save file.
2. Go to the game's settings and set them (sound volume, camera sensitivity, difficulty, etc.) as you need. Save the changes in the settings, wait for it to finish saving and close the red saving popup.
3. Open Windows Explorer and go to "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Asobo Studio\Ratatouille", where "Username" is your username (duh). There you'll see your save files in numbered order.
4. Right-click the save file that you created a few steps ago, select "Properties" (normally the last option in the drop-down menu), and in the properties menu, tick "Read-only". Press "Apply" and close the window.
5. Now in the game, make it to a save spot (the first save spot is the first conversation with Emile inside the house). If everything is done correctly, the game will display a "Save failed" message (followed by an empty message). Afterwards, you'll be able to continue without saving. If you want to reset, just load the read-only save file (assuming it was made read-only before any save point, like it should have).

# Conclusion

I attempted to make this guide accessible, but if you still have questions, then hopefully we will able to help you in the Ratatouille speedrunning Discord server.

## Special thanks

gairin, for discovering some of the differences in the City of Lights, and helping me document the controls-related stuff.
Illumina and ShakoSoldier, for significantly contributing to the framerate discovery.
ComradeNapCal (RealPoltergoose) for the read-only trick and a lot of other discoveries.
Other people that have indirectly contributed to this guide.

Name	Author
Any% Video Tutorial	Wanu 1 year ago
Bone Sequence Break Tutorial	RatAChat 23 days ago
How cycles can affect your IL attempt by taking the example of That's a Loot of Fruit	Proenke 4 years ago
How to install and setup Ratatouille (Video tutorial)	Wanu 4 years ago
Known Strategies Compendium 2024 - Edition 1.3	right_in_the_tockles 10 months ago
Load Remover + Loading Times	TPM 4 years ago
MG_PLAT (KD/KN)	TPM 4 years ago
Ratatorial: The all inclusive guide to running Any% with and without Desserted Kitchen Early	EpicNess 6 years ago
The PC Guide (version 2.2) [OUTDATED]	TwoSpacesSG 6 years ago
tockle's speedrun notes playlist	right_in_the_tockles 6 years ago