• Animation canceling:

1. When you crack (Iji extends her arm) something like a terminal, a long animation plays. The crack happens after 5 frames. It is possible to duck on the 5th frame and the crack still happens. The minimum duck duration is 4 frames. If you cancel the animation by jumping you need to do it after the 5th frame. It is also possible to move for one frames worth of pixels if you hold left of right when you press C (the default crack key). When jumping you move at the same speed as walking but you lose 1 frame when you land (you always lose a frame when you land). It is faster to cancel by jumping if you can move in one direction while still being in the range to crack (in the case of a level-up terminal).
2. Hardfall animation cancelling: If you fall for long enough, Iji will do a long animation (length depends on height of fall) where she recovers from the fall. This can be interrupted by jumping as soon as she hits the ground (in some cases you need to wait a frame, not sure why but it isn’t on the longest falls).
3. Ledge grab animation cancelling: When getting out of a ledge grab animation it is possible to jump at a certain point in the animation, saving up to 3 frames. I do this for every ledge grab.

• Nanofield reboot: This allows you to reset your skill points and is used in sectors 4 and X. It is done by pressing C 4 times and the kick key once while ducking. You can only start this if you have been ducking for at least 1 frame. You can press C and Z (default kick key) as the last input on the same frame though.

• Enemy / RNG manipulation: this is a huge part of the TAS as enemy patterns are ‘random’. The patterns can change if you fire a weapon or alter the height of your jump, so if you see me firing my weapon at nothing or doing weird jumps it’s to manipulate enemies. Many times this is to get enemies to damage boost me or not to slow me down.

• Damage boosting: the knockback of the MPFB (blue projectiles, weapon 4) is insane and so it is better to get hit or hit yourself with it than just walking, assuming that you don’t get slowed down by anything. It is slower than walking to damage boost by hitting yourself with the Rocket launcher or Splintershock because the getting up animation is really long. Getting hit by enemy rockets or splintershocks is faster if the ceiling is tall enough (you get massively slowed down if you hit it). It is also better to be in the air when getting hit because you travel at a high speed for longer, assuming that the ceiling is high enough. Getting punched by the Tasen Commander or hit by Komato Berserker’s resonance detonator is also faster than walking. Note that holding the arrow key in the direction you are flying makes you go faster if you aren’t at max speed (not holding any key or holding the key in the direction you are going is identical) and holding the arrow key opposite the flying direction will slow you down (you can speed back up by holding the opposite direction key).

• Teching: Teching is done by pressing C immediately before taking damage, and Iji will not stagger from pain, fly shorter and land on her feet when sent flying. Yellow circles shoot out of her when you tech successfully. This is useful when taking armor damage because you can press C and a direction 1 frame before taking damage and this doesn’t waste any time.

• Pre-jumping: When you need to fall down from a ledge it is fastest to jump before doing so because Iji starts falling sooner. I do this for every fall where it is possible. It saves around 4 frames per jump so it adds up over the course of the TAS.

• Text/cutscene skipping: Some dialog cannot be skipped and you must go through it box by box. I skip all of the dialog (mostly at the start of the sector/Dan talking mid sector) and all of the cutscenes that can be skipped. Note that this doesn’t mean that I skip the cutscene/text completely, they are unavoidable. Cutscenes can be skipped after 1 frame.

• Breaking doors with the Resonance detonator (weapon 5) because the kick animation is long but the Resonance detonator doesn’t delay you.

Sector by sector analysis:

Time save compared to prevous TAS