In this guide you will learn how to skip certain fights in the game. Some skips save almost no time but help to conserve ammo, other skips save a few seconds and other skips even save at least half a minute! Many skips are performed doing a Unicorn Jump: jumping while getting hit by a unicorn launches you into the air and allows you to get to places you aren't supposed to be. Other skips use a simple jump or strafing. The videos below explain how to perform the skips. Good luck, have fun!

Tutorial: Guide Fairy Skip

After weeks of unproven theories and sheer incomprehension it was finally figured out how the Guide Fairy Skip works. It does not rely on specific movement right before the skip but actually on skipping a trigger for the text boxes. The video explains how and why it works.

Level 1: Restart Strat & Barrier Skip

In Level 1 you can restart after collecting the Mood Enhancement Rifle which will still be equipped after restarting. This way you can avoid the fight that is triggered when collecting the weapon. Compared to doing the fight you save roughly two seconds. As for the second fight in the level you can just jump over the barrier on the upper platform to skip it.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: roughly 10 seconds

Level 1: Cave Skip

You can skip a fight in the caves by unicorn-jumping on the walls and walking past the trigger for the fight.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: a few seconds

Update on Cave Skip

Instead of walking across the wall you get launched up on you can actually dash diagonally to save roughly half a second.

Level 2: First Fight Skip

With a unicorn jump it is possible to skip the first fight in level 2. Even though the time save for this skip is minimal it does conserve ammo which is especially important when trying to achieve times below 8 minutes.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: slim to none

Level 2: Key Skip

With a strafe jump and a strafe dash you can skip the key door in level 2. It is important to note you won't be able to pick up the grenade launcher when doing this skip. This will result in time losses in levels 3 and 4 because it will take more time to kill the pandas. However, across the whole run it will save time.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: at least 30 seconds

Level 2: Corridors Skip

You can skip a fight in the corridors right before the last fight of level 2. The strategy shown in the video is not useful if you perform the key skip in this level since you end up at the other side of the corridors but you can skip the barriers on both sides with this strategy.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: roughly 7 seconds

Level 3: First Fight Skip

You can skip the first fight (and the following two) by doing an Elevated Unicorn Jump from the crate next to the barrier.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: roughly 4 seconds

Level 3: Barrier Skip

This is one of the easiest skips in the game, just jump over the barrier from a high platform.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: roughly 10 seconds

Level 3: Elevated Unicorn Jump

You can skip the second to last fight in level 3 with an "elevated unicorn jump" which means getting launched by a unicorn while being on a higher platform than the unicorn.

I did some testing on timing and consistency, here are my results: I tested how long it would take me to spawn the fight in the last room starting from the checkpoint. Out of 15 tries I completed 8 with the best time being 36 seconds, the worst time being over a minute and an average time of 54 seconds. This means the skip can even save time when performed unoptimally since the current route takes roughly 50 to 60 seconds from the checkpoint to the last fight. When performed quickly this skip has the potential to save at least 20 seconds, possibly more.

Update on Elevated Unicorn Jump

I found a way to make the EUJ more consistent. It is still a hard trick in my opinion because sometimes the unicorn behaves differently than you need it to and if you don't kill the other enemies in the room it can get pretty messy. But with this version of the skip it should be easier to get it more often.

Level 3: Key Skip

To skip the key door in level 3 you can use a unicorn jump. Please be aware this skip can be a bit inconsistent sometimes and you need quite a bit of health to do it because you are going to be attacked by a lot of enemies.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: at least 30 seconds

Here you can see the Key Skip "in action" in a full run of the level:

Level 4: Laika Skip 1.0 (obsolete)

This skip is obsolete since Laika Skip 2.0 was found.

Time save compared to killing the enemies quickly: at least 30 seconds

Update on Laika Skip 1.0

Here's a small update on the Laika Skip. I did some testing and found out the trigger for the last fight you skip is actually pretty small so you don't need to go all the way around, you can just drop down and head to the tunnel.

Level 4: Laika Skip 2.0

The new version of this skip skips the key barrier and the three fights aferwards.

Time save compared to old Laika Skip: at least 15 seconds

Strafing

Strafing (walking diagonally) is very fast in this game. In this comparison you can see it is possible to get the first health pack in the tutorial almost 6 seconds faster compared to regular movement. This means strafing is roughly 25% faster than normal walking.

Playlist With All Skips

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdyENVSfe-u3uePst-zpbu90FPhdmZM2i