If you have a save that has shield link, a workaround you can do is turn on the quick select pause on, then hold triangle and do the bot action (such as pressing left twice). Quick select pause prevents bots from using shield link.

Although by definition using taxis is not allowed in classic%, would calling the taxi company in order to spawn a taxi nearby to use it as a vehicle count against this rule or not?

I ask this since this would be used once in epsilon%, after going up the east coast of the map for hidden packages and before doing the third epsilon mission.

It happened to me once when I went through NG+ without armor. I think it has to do with you dying but being saved by the nano-pak.

Regardless, getting the nano-pak takes too long in all categories except for 100%, and even then its probably faster to defeat Neffy normally rather than to "die" to him. Glitch or no glitch, you'd still have to do all the damage to him.

Also, strictly speaking, this isn't skipping Neffy, this is cheesing him, like how the Snivelak boss and the Protopet are cheesed in GC any%.

If this doesn't always occur, my guess is that the cause is Ratchet's health going to 0 on one frame, and the Nano-pak setting it to 30 in the next, and thus Neffy's AI seeing that Ratchet has 0 health and entering into his victory state.

So that happened once. It might just be one of those things that happens once in a blue moon and isn't practically repeatable, but if someone were ever to TAS the game, this would be something to look into to save up to a few minutes.

I also (probably) found two reset strats. The first is resetting after making it over half way the tire fire (mainly only useful if you're about to fall into the fire, or if you're about to get a lot of air or overshoot the trailer park), which puts you right before the bend after the tire fire, angled towards the trailer park.

The second is resetting shortly after the driveway shortcut next to the Simpson's house, before the krusty glass. Prior to pressing select (or the equivalent on PC/GCN), you need to turn the vehicle slightly to the left. The result is that you are put on the intersection ahead facing towards the next shortcut. This is mainly useful if the vehicle's speed is very high, or in situations like mission 7-7 where it helps to prevent you from losing the waste.

Anyway, I've just got ~1:38:00 in NG+. I'll upload it later tonight.

Actually, going through the footage, its 1:37:05.

I only really use the B6 in Swarmer Surprise, so ammo mods aren't useful there.

Also, what do you think the best setup for weapons is? I currently have:

Shock mod on everything except the turret

Brainwash on the turret

All ammo mods on everything except the vipers and the B6

5 ammo mods and 5 speed mods on the vipers

All speed mods on the B6

Without using the flail/mine launcher/wrench climb glitches, what do you think the fastest time is?

I have also just found that the Ace Hardlight exterminator card is a complete non-issue in 100%, since you get about 350,000 doing all the dread challenges in Exterminator and about 250,000 getting through NG.

Fortunately it seems that the NG section of the run will be mostly glitchless (completely glitchless depending on how I end up doing On The Prowl).

Without using the Flail/mine launcher glitches, I'd guess that a 1:45 - 1:40 is about the best time I can get in NG+, as my main time losses were On The Prowl, Sarathos Sprint, The Turn On, Jail Break, and Total Control (as well as the very first mission, the one before Advanced Qualifier).

Also, do you know if the flail jump/mine launcher wallhack is possible in the PS2 version? Having tried both, I find the first to be impossible and the second to be far too unreliable.

Actually, the NG sections have some deviations. For example, the first On The Prowl skip can't be done because you need to break jackpot crates, cameras, and manually turn two cranks. Since dread point rewards diminish when replaying missions, it might also be needed to do some extra dread challenges in NG.

Also the current plan is to get as many skill points in NG as possible, as the reduced difficulty should make them easier, and many can be collected "on the way".

Yeah, I'll want to start with NG+, then NG+ All Missions, then NG+ All Missions Exterminator. I did an NG+ run the other day and got about 1:51:00.

I should hope that my first 100% run will be below twelve hours, which would mean about 12 - 15 videos.

Thanks for clarifying Jumpyluff

I'm Going to route and hopefully run the 100% category

Is it acceptable to have the video proof be in sections (ie, in six or twelve youtube videos)? In addition, is it required to have footage of the timer in the video?