Before starting a run, make sure that your Camera Distance is set to 1. This will allow you to jump over the water at the start of Klinsy's stage and get a perfect Tornado cycle on Verri's stage.
Klinsy
There's 2 different paths of upgrades you can get before you reach the Syega crystal here. The easiest is to get Speed - Line - Line. This will allow you to grab the crystal and kill the nearby book enemy with little effort. The downside of this path is that you skip out on Wing, which helps with certain jumps if you're just starting out. The other option is to get Speed - Wing - Line. If you do this you will have to upgrade your speed in mid-air while you're hovering over the book enemy with wing. It's tricky, and the first option is a lot more consistent. Only use this option if you really need Wing for the stage.
When grabbing the Syega the game will pause while you have to watch a short animation of the crystal floating to your upgrade meter. This animation can be cancelled by bringing up the Weapon Menu (default button X) and closing it. So remember to double tap X when picking up this and the 2nd Syega.
The 1st Tornado on the stage (at the first locked door) can be jumped over with perfect timing. Always try to go for this jump. Getting hit is what the route used to do, so you will be able to get max Power before Klinsy. It is however very important that this hit is the only one you take before you reach the final water trap.
For the rest of the stage we are just building up our meter for max Power. Kill all enemies that are in your way and you should have max Power just before you reach the last water trap near the boss door.
Pause your movement for a split second as you're jumping up the steps to the boss door at the first book. If you don't stop for that split second the book will hit you.
Boss Fight: Stand in front of Klinsy and mash. After she has fired the 2nd projectile, run behind her and start mashing again. This will make sure that your final shot will not be blocked by the Phoenix.
Upgrade Dia Missile to rank 1 when you return to Stage Select.
Blad
Get Speed - Speed - Speed - Wing. Use Wing to hover over the spikes. The 2nd Syega is hidden in a higher place than you can shoot so you need to jump at it. As soon as the Syega appears hover back to the platform you jumped from, wait half a second and jump to grab the Syega. Cancel the animation again by bringing up the weapon menu and closing it.
The first set of porcupines can be killed while jumping over their spikes and avoid damage.
The 2nd set which appear after a downwards elevator you only kill the first one and jump over the other two. From here to the boss door you will only kill one more porcupine, and it's the first one guarding the stairs to Blad.
Boss Fight: Switch to Dia Missile before jumping through the door. Blad goes down in 2 hits so hopefully you saved most of your meter and just spam Dia Missile on her.
Upgrade Tres to rank 1 when you return to Stage Select.
Sola
Not much to say for this stage. Always start by maxing Speed from this point, after you can kinda do what you want. Line will always be the preferred weapon of choice since it's better than Comet in every single way.
Just be careful of the first Red Star enemy. By stopping your movement for a split second like you did on Klinsy's stage you can jump over with no damage taken.
Boss Fight: Now you can start using the Weapon Switch glitch. The way it works is that whatever weapon projectile that is on screen can have its power changed to what you currently have equipped. Example: If you throw out a Bound Ring and switch to Dia Missile (rank 1) after that Ring will now have the same power as a rank 1 Bound Ring.
Run up to Sola and fire a Bound Ring and switch to Dia Missile with L as fast as you can. If done correctly Sola will be below 50% HP from 1 hit. The 2nd hit does not need to be switched. You can use a rank 0 Ring if you want.
Upgrade Tres to rank 2 when you return to Stage Select.
Papelne
Max speed at the start and then get what you need. This stage has zips with the red/blue blocks and as far as I know the spear traps are on a global timer that starts when you enter the stage. I always take 1 hit from the very first spear trap, and then zip through the ceiling using the red/blue blocks. To zip you need to be traveling upwards while being inside the blocks when you hit the switch. Holding the jump button increases you success rate by a lot when zipping. If you're fast enough at the first zip you will end up with an arrow right behind you. This arrow is faster than you so let it get really close, keep running and jump and hover and you should be able to reach the stairs before the arrow hits.
At the check point area with 6 ghosts there's a good visual q for when to jump and shoot the first archer at the stairs. If you look at the background you will see 2 tree houses followed by a small well. Jump and shoot at the well and your shots will hit the archer as you're jumping up the stairs.
If your timing is right you will be able to run past the spear traps at the S shape without stopping. If you're slightly of use Wing to hover down while the spears are up.
When you get to the staircase with a blue switch on it you want to jump over it and into the red blocks, shoot the blue switch in front of you and if done correctly you will zip to the top of the red blocks. Use this path to skip all the spear traps at the bottom. If you fail this last zip you have to go through the spears. As long as you don't get hit by the first spear then you have enough invul. frames to run through all of them.
Boss fight: Just like Sola. Use her weakness and switch to Dia Missile before the projectile hits.
Stoj
Very straight forward stage with no tricks. Just run and gun. The only thing you need to be careful of is the monkeys. Their coconuts will block projectiles so you need your shots to kill them as soon as they spawn. There's one monkey sitting at the top of a set of stairs, with an S shaped path behind him. This monkey can't be killed before he throws the coconut, so just like Klinsy's stage stop your movement for a split second to avoid taking damage from the coconut.
Boss fight: Use visual q's to figure out where to stand so that your Ground Impact hits Stoj. I place Zizou over the "Co" in Comet. And don't forget to switch to Dia Missile before the Impact hits Stoj.
Al
The start of Al's stage is a bit rough sometimes. Make sure to kill the last mushroom girl at the top of the stairs before you get there.
The first penguin can be avoided if you wait about half a second before jumping up to his platform.
After the check point area you're given 3 paths to choose from. I always take the very bottom one. If you take the one at the top you will have to fall down a deep hole at the end, which will cost time. The middle path has a snowflake in the way. The top path does skip a snowflake that sits in a tight tunnel. But if you spam fire when entering the tunnel you can jump over the small snowflake with good timing.
When reaching the climb be careful of the 2nd penguin. But similar to the first one, you can jump under him. Sometimes he gives you a delayed pattern so that he will be in front of you as you jump up. Always fire as you jump up to his platform just in case he gives you the delayed pattern.
Boss Fight: Run up to Al and stand inside her. Use one tornado and switch to Dia instantly.
Upgrade Dia Missile to rank 3 when you return to Stage Select
Verri
There is a very risky jump you can do at the start of this stage. After you have gone down the stairs and past the first spike enemy a 2nd one is waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs, near the edge. If you press your jump button lightly (not too lightly) you will be able to land on the edge without taking damage or falling down the hole. If you wanna be safe just slow down and go for an extra jump. After you have killed the first dwarf enemy there will be 2 other ones standing on top of some small platforms. It's very important that your head does not bonk with these platforms (which slows you down a little). If you do it is very likely that you will get sniped by the last dwarf and get knocked into the hole.
After the red/blue blocks just run and mash shot. Jump over the first small snowflake and the 2nd one will barely fly over your head.
When you come to the elevators after the snowflakes jump into the first one. Hover over the 2nd one using about half your Wing meter and land in the 3rd elevator. When going into the 4th one (going down) use the remaining meter while inside the elevator. Just keep riding along now and you should make it inside the opening without colliding with any walls or ceiling. Keep running and you should be able to run past the 2 first tornadoes, but you must jump over the last one. When landing on the platform below be careful of the fire from Papa Snowman, if he used his fire attack you need to jump over it.
When entering the dark area take the upper path at the fork.
For the 2nd half of the stage just run and gun. Be sure to take out the dark phoenix enemies before they start shooting, otherwise they will keep following you.
Boss fight: Verri is the easiest boss in the game. She goes down to two Dia Missiles so all you have to do is mash it.
Riva
The start of this stage is not much to talk about. Just max out your speed and save your meter, you won't be attacking with normal shots anyways.
When it comes to what order to fight the bosses in I don't think it really matters. The most important thing in the boss fights is to skip the animation for when they explode. This is done by jumping at where the portal appears when you land the killing blow. This animation skip works on all bosses except for Blad (because the range on Dia is so short you don't have enough time to run to the portal).
It's also important to remember that the bosses have more HP in these fights, so now it does matter if you fail the weapon switch glitch.
Boss fight (Riva): Before jumping into the portal have Line equipped. Fire a shot at the start of the battle and switch to Dia before Line hits Riva. The weapon switch glitch works for normal shots too and since Dia Missile is rank 3 it does the most damage. The reason why you want to shoot Line at the start is to take away certain chunck of her life before you get in range for Dia Missile.
Riva Awakened: Final boss. It's an auto-scroller. Use Bound Ring and watch them bounce around until they hit something. The only thing to watch out for here is the 2 sets of porcupines. After they have been dealt with you can pretty much do whatever.
