It could also be argued that with well enough optimization, specific missions would eventually depend on an auto-splitter, given how short many of them are already.

This got me thinking, what of specific missions in general? What if we had 'IL' defined for those as well? Maybe not now, but if IL's continue to be competitive as they are, it could make it even more so if that was expanded upon.

To start off, I’d like to throw my hat into my own ring with a potential for skipping a few levels. Right after The City of Lights the game opens up much more, despite not being able to get around the barriers of newer levels yet, the center of Home Stink Home is the closest we COULD probably get to them. Just before entering The City of Lights however, we may technically be in Home Stink Home with the only issue being the closed off gate. Going back even further though, the same could be said for the entrance just before Paris Streets. For this to work, we’d have to assume many things about level entrances, their hit-boxes, and the game’s sequence. I’m going to go over the assumptions, and then explain possible issues with them.

1. Prior to Paris Streets and City of Lights, we really are in the same Home Stink Home. It could be that these levels are seprate maps, which would mean that even if we could get to where we want, it doesn’t exactly exist at that point of the game.
2. Despite a cutscene pre-empting many of these levels’ first entrances, we don’t actually need said cutscenes to enter. Let’s say we get to the center of Home Stink Home, but have yet to find a way around the hub’s barriers, meaning that our next step would be entering Little Chef Big Kitchen. If the cutscenes with Remy’s dad are required for a ‘first level entrance’, its possible the cutscene is impossible to reach out of order.
3. Going around levels won’t have any ramifications on how the game works. For right now, it’s unknown what would happen if we skipped a major level. It’s possible that everything else works out, but skipping levels causes any number problems down the road, or even immediately. I plan to look into this asap, but if you would like to contribute, feel free!

Making an understanding of how the game works can greatly contribute to finding new time saves, 'Potential Strategies' is simply the application of that understanding into the game. Discussions like this happen on/off in the discord, and I thought this could be a good way to keep track of and compile them. So, feel free to contribute any findings!

Probobly not the most urgent of issues, but times (especially on the IL boards) can get a little close together considering how linear the game still is, so i think adding tenths or even hundredths could be necessary if not now, sometime in the future; at least until we learn enough about the game to open it up again.

Currently, emulation is prone to inconsistencies and most of all crashes. These crashes can be diverted by changing CPU Engine and/or Backend momentarily but completing the entire game on one setting has yet to be seen. So, unless these issues are fixed it's likely a TAS would require video editing and even then loadtimes could still become an obstacle. Best of luck to those who attempt this feat.

Nice meme