INTRO Refer to the "How Routing Works (#1: Terminology + Concepts)" guide before reading this, as it will assume you understand the content of it. This guide will do an overview of the route for some of the categories in the game, taking note of version differences and explaining the logic that goes into the routes. This is meant to be helpful and as a way to apply your understanding of the routing concepts in the aforementioned guide.
95/100% OVERVIEW 95% and 100% are essentially the same category, with 95% cutting out the opal grinding section at the end of the run. Both categories have the same route up until that point, hence this guide will cover both and will refer to itself as just 100% for the rest of the guide. That being said, the route for 100% in itself is extremely similar to All Missions, which is natural considering All Missions visits every level/mission in the game already. The main differences are that 100% completes all 7 races and gets all collectibles around the map while doing the missions.
CHAPTER 1 The first thing to be aware of for 100% is that the opal route is extremely tight from the start of the run until just after chapter 1. Very often I find myself just barely having enough opals after Patchy, even with the route having us go out of our way for extra opals along the way. 9,000 opals are required after Patchy, and 4,000 are spent ASAP after the intro, similar to All Missions (talking to Steve in the sewers achieves this first goal). The route also has us getting a bunch of invisible boxes with the infrarang while heading towards the sewers to talk to Ken for Spy 2. The route goes Intro -> Training Program -> That's a Croc -> Tree Rescue -> Haunted House -> Spy 1 -> Start Spy 2 -> Ninjas 1 -> Race 1 -> Explosive Cargo -> Race 2 -> Patchy.
CHAPTER 2 The route for chapter 2 is different from All Missions in that we do Grub Grab and delay Volcano Rescue until later. A driving force behind the 100% route is minimizing backtracking at all times, meaning only going into larger levels for their mission(s) when we have all rangs required to get all of the collectibles while there. Other than that, the route is straightforward, with the first instance of 100%'ing an area coming with Canopy Capers. The route goes Grub Grab -> Race 3 -> Canopy Capers (100%) -> Training North of Freeway -> Dennis Freeway -> Croc Stock Pile -> Ripper Nipper -> Oil Rig/Buster.
CHAPTER 3 Chapter 3 is the longest chapter of this route, due to the sheer amount of large levels that are 100%'d in this area of the map. The opal route from chapter 2 -> 3 can be a bit tricky at times, but I personally never have consistent issues with it. You should have, at bare minimum, 23,250 opals after returning from the Buster fight. The first thing that is done is buying a variety of rangs and bunyips in Burramudgee Town, and then visiting Sly's Shack to get the Warperang, which is the final required rang for 100%'ing levels from this point onwards. Also, chapter 3 contains the only instance of re-visiting (backtracking) an area, although it is essentially forced by the game and not a result of routing. The Orb outside of Dennis Freeway is impossible to get at the time of doing Dennis Freeway in any good route for this game. The route goes Sly's Shack (Warperang) -> Sheep Dip -> Volcano Rescue (100% Mount Boom) -> Re-visit Dennis Freeway (for Orb) -> Sub 1+2 (100% beach, including race 4) -> Training North of Beach -> Tourist Trap (100% Faire Dinkum) -> Crocodile Chaos (100% Wetlands) -> Ninjas 2 -> Sulphur Rocks (100%) -> Bush Fire -> Fluffy.
CHAPTER 4 Chapter 4 is virtually identical to the All Missions route, apart from needing to do races along the way. Also, Sheep Dip is already taken care of, so we don't need to drive past Outback Oasis and return to it after that. The route goes Big Bang (100% Bush Rescue HQ) -> Race 5 -> The Never Never (100%) -> Ninjas 3 -> Plutonium Panic -> Need a Spare -> Truck Stop -> Race 6 -> Truck Tragedy -> Race 7 -> Fire Fight -> Outback Oasis (100%) -> Boss Cass Bust Up.
