Hi :) When I run "Welcome to Antarctica" (Powerupless), I get a slightly different time each time (27.810, 27.840 or 27.860) when I hold right the entire run. Therefore I am wondering whether this is just random or there actually is some kind of little speed-boost, e.g. by jumping on enemies, reducing air time or jumping against blocks over Tux.

Thanks in advance :)

Jumping at the corner of blocks above Tux can push him a little to the right saving time. The “displacement” (as OscillatingOcelot calls it) is visually noticeable. Jump at the very back of enemies also saves some time. That’s all I know. OscillatingOcelot is the expert at this kind of stuff.

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I'm speedrunning ST since April. I did quite a lot of v0.5.1 ILs, and here is what I've experienced about how to "boost", which is getting displaced/teleported on the right, saving about 0.01 to 0.05s. (it's useful in every ILs, not only the hold-right levels)

There are two ways to boost:

• Rubbing Tux on the corner of blocks (this works up and down, by jumping just under an edge or falling just over an edge)
• Stepping on the right of an enemy (the more right you hit it, and the more falling speed you have, the wider the displacement is likely to be) Note that stepping on an enemy is usually the most efficient way to boost.

You might want to find the route with the most boosts and get a reasonable amount of them if you go for an IL WR. If a boost is decently wide, it'll be indeed visually noticeable. I recommend looking at the current WR of these levels:

• "The Journey Begins" (this level has been optimized to the point where there are plenty of boosts thoughout the whole level)
• "End of the Tunnel" (it has a nice "stair slide" at 16s into the run which combines several displacements at the same time, in this case 2)

I hope this can help. ;) I'm not the most informed on this subject so if there's something missing or wrong feel free to respond on the thread. :)