Visser Three attempts to create a device that is designed to wipe out the Animorphs life using the Continuum Crystal. However the device failed and the crystal has vanished leaving behind a shattered reality. This reality is where Visser Three has almost completed his world domination.

Watch as Fizztastic morphs and fights their way through to stop Visser Three and restore the reality to what it once was in record time.

The YouTube encode includes commentary.

wesen runs through the game in record time.

As can be seen from the movie time, none of this occurs in this TAS. It's just one naked dash to the top and a whole bunch of fortuitous circumstances. Luck manipulation was used on almost every floor to ensure that elevators and helpful traps are strategically located.

Should you decide to play Azure Dreams, this is definitely the wrong way to play the game.

Here Spikestuff is playing through them quickly while picking up the maximum score of 10 for each. Getting the high score sometimes has odd conditions, like the elephant race where finishing 7-2 is needed for the 10.

For a TAS of a related game, see the Salary Man Champ publication.

This game has two modes, the main mode and Time Trial mode. Time Trial mode features the car level from the main mode as well as a lot of original levels where a button must be pushed over and over as fast as the player can, aptly nicknamed "button mashers".

While this movie by Spikestuff seems slower than the previous publication that runs through Time Trial mode, it is, in fact, faster by 0.39 seconds in in-game time. For more details, see the author's comments.

The minigames themselves are very straightforward and usually involve only the Triangle, Cross, and Circle buttons. This is a direct holdover from the original arcade machines, which featured a three-button layout. Some minigames also include the directional pad to increase the button-mashing even further. For example, in the first minigame the player has to fend off mobsters by pressing the D-Pad in the direction they're coming from.

Watch Spikestuff absolutely demolish his computer opponent in one fast-paced minigame after another!

As usual with the Bishi Bashi games, it's full to the brim with random and rather off-beat mini-games that often times pokes fun at Konami's own franchises (such as Track & Field and Beatmania). Most of the mini-games are either of the button mashing variety (such as the mini-game in which the player has to throw a tantrum faster than his siblings to get a toy by stomping his feet on the ground repeatedly), but there are also games where the player has to time which button to press (one such game is very similar to Dance Dance Revolution).

Up to three players can face off against one another to determine who is the ultimate Step Champ.

Well aware of his fearful power, A uses it until he becomes strong enough to rely on his physical power, after which he manipulates luck to an indecent extent, using frame-by-frame advancing to pulverize his foes and even the final boss. It may be a little anti-climactic, but it's much quicker this way.

This is currently the second longest published movie (only Final Fantasy VIII is longer). You might want to take your morning and your afternoon to watch this.

Bubsy 3D is the fourth game in the Bubsy series, and was its last one for 21 years, until the franchise was revived with a fifth game. Released in 1996, it was one of the first 3D platform games out there, though its poor controls, terrible graphics, and annoying main character lead the game to being considered one of the worst of all time.

Solarplex claws his way through the game in just over 23 minutes, almost making it look fun and playable in the process.

lapogne36 decided that finding the precious stone was more than enough, as he skips to Count Blood Count and finished the game in record time.

Slash Mode is an unlockable feature where the challenge is to kill 100 opponents as fast as possible. This game adds on to the original Bushido Blade's Slash Mode with an on-screen timer and more variety in enemies and environments.

In this run, Dammit runs through Slash Mode as fast as possible, finishing with an ingame time of 3'34"76.

Not satisfied with just going on a death spree to Dracula, Alucard decides to steal every single one of his father's heirlooms, while also killing his prized collection of monsters. Luckily he has the handy ability of phasing through walls whenever he needs to.

A run that beats the game through save data corruption is available here, along with one that avoids data corruption. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run. We also have a run of the Saturn version using Maria. We even have a run where Alucard avoids killing everything except Dracula.

ForgoneMoose manages to improve the previous run by 21.55 seconds due to better luck manipulation and movement technique.

A run that beats the game even faster through save data corruption is available here, and a 100% run covering the whole castle can be found here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run.

ForgoneMoose and sockfolder, by corrupting the save data, manage to corrupt the memory and go straight to the ending, totally skipping Richter and the whole second castle.

A 100% run covering the whole castle is also available here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run. A run with clear save without memory corruption is also available here.

This run is played on a Replay save file (not newgame+ because neither experience nor items are carried over) using the Luck Mode command. Using Replay allows the player to skip most cutscenes and alters what the librarian can sell. Using Luck Mode lowers the player's base strength which, among other changes, ironically makes the run faster by enabling a route filled with kicking enemies that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

A run that beats the game through save data corruption is available here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run that beats every boss, see this run. We also have a run of the Saturn version using Maria. We even have a run where Alucard avoids killing everything except Dracula.

This run beats the game at level 1 with 0 experience, and the only official (recorded in the bestiary) kill being Dracula. A few other enemies are killed using a glitch to avoid the kill being recorded or experience being awarded.

Follow Richter (playable after you beat the game once) as he glitches and speeds through the castle on a quest to defeat Dracula. If you like fast sliding, dashing, uppercutting, and using precipitation to defeat bosses, you'll love this run.

This is an improvement of 1.90 over the previous run. You can read the author's comments for more information.

TASVideos also has several runs using Alucard, including a Replay run, a run that aims for fastest time on a clean save, and a run that kills every boss and obtains all relics. We also have a run from the Saturn version using Maria.

In this run, the author uses Arrange Mode, as it's more suitable for taking damage to save time (Simon loses less HP when getting hit than in Original Mode). He also abuses a trick that allows him to use a subweapon with a shorter attack animation (jumping and whipping before attacking with the subweapon).

The author uses luck manipulation to get favorable floor layouts, descending rapidly through the dungeons while still collecting items needed to kill bosses.

The Japanese version of this game is used due to differences in at least one stage causing the Japanese version to be more difficult.

This run pauses for a few seconds between tracks to show the final track times.

Note that we do not normally accept runs starting from save states. See the Rules for more information.

Utilizing zigzag movement and other new tricks, pirohiko improves the previous movie by a staggering 9:09.64, leaving Neo Cortex wondering just what kind of flying bandicoot on a double espresso he set on the loose. For details on the new tricks, differences between the USA and JPN versions, and the strategies used, reading the author's comments is recommended.

A second YouTube stream is available with an informative overlay that the author used while creating the run. The latter pair of encodes and torrents provides high quality 480p encodes improved for 3D.

A normal run of this game takes a rather long time to complete. However, by using a bug that corrupts the memory when jumping on top of an unbreakable box, the author gathers the crystals necessary to advance to the next set of stages unbelievably quickly, leaving only the bosses to make quick work of.

This run by Chef Stef improves on the previous movie by 11:30.84 minutes. It finishes the game fast without abusing any major glitches. There is also a run that uses this glitch and completes the game even faster.

This run from pirohiko improves upon the previous publication by 2:37.46 minutes, thanks to a newer route compared to the previous publication.

This run from The8bitbeast plays through all 25 levels and defeats all five bosses of the game as fast as possible, avoiding the use of both the item glitch and gate clip while taking advantage of zip-zagging.

We recommend reading the author's comments for information about this run.

There is also a "item glitch, gate skip" run which completes the game as fast as possible using both glitches not used in this run.

We recommend reading the author's comments for information about this run.

Thanks to a glitch in the physics engine, Croc adds another trick to his repertoire: the ability to float. This run by RingRush makes heavy use of the floating glitch and various other tricks to defeat Baron Dante and save the Gobbo king as fast as possible.

For a run that rescues all Gobbos, collects all jigsaw pieces, and completes all levels, see the 100% run.

Note: There are encodes of higher resolutions in the discussion thread.

Flip plays through the PS1 port of the game in record time.

There is also an alternate YouTube stream which removes the load screens by the author.

Avouca and Custom defeat Cruella in record time.

The author, Hoandjzj, uses precision and a few tricks to beat this game in just under 34 minutes.

The author, Mothrayas, uses Goku's ridiculously powerful crouching close punch move to deplete enemies' lifebars really quickly and defeat all 27 opponents in record time.

This run plays through Quest Mode, using lots of luck manipulation to get very short floor layouts. (As a commenter noted in the discussion thread, the game may be more aptly called "God Bless the RNG".)

This shooting game has something particular compared to its siblings. Not only can the player shoot bullets, but he can also wield a sword and slash through enemies. In fact, the game's title, Einhänder, means "single-handed" in German, referring to the player's sword.

In this movie, sparky takes advantage of a glitch to abuse the weapon's attack to cause more damage. This is only possible in the Japanese version.

For more details on the low completion time and the extensive route planning put into this run, we recommend reading the author's comments as well as the author's commentary outlining the run.

Although compared to the previous movie is slower by 30 minutes due to mostly loading time differences between emulation. The author improves on their previous movie by roughly 10 minutes when emulation differences are accounted for thanks to newer tricks and optimizations.

The second YouTube link leads to a playlist of the TAS segmented to their respective disks.

This is the first multi-disc publication on the site, and is also one of the longest published runs.

There are two YouTube streams available for this movie. The first is a four-part playlist offering HD video, and the second is contained all in one stream in 720p.

CoolKirby uses his TAS powers to make Frogger and Lily hyperactive, so they rescue their babies at their fastest. If you're looking for crazy hopping action, look no further!

CaneofPacci manages to beat the game in just under 48 minutes while still saving all of the frogs on each level.

The story follows Claude Speed, a criminal worker who moved to Anywhere City to work for gang bosses to earn money and wreck havoc in all three districts in the city.

Watch as Mothrayas avoids all the missions and quickly moves into each district by abusing glitches with bonuses to make money fast. He also fulfills everyone's dream to complete the game just by basically messing around. For more information, see the author's comments.

Encoder's Note: Every second encode link leads to an omitted version removing all game loads.

Guilty Gear is a 2D fighting game in which you can play as one of ten very different characters from among Holy Order knights, Armed Air Force soldiers, Mafia members and mad scientists. Each character has his or her own storyline that will be fully revealed during the final showdown. In battles, you can charge up for special attacks as well as perform Deathblow moves, which can kill the opponent instantly. As well as the regular Arcade mode, you can also challenge your friends to a Versus battle.

In this run, Cooljay and N?K choose Ky Kiske and aim for fastest time in Arcade mode using combo moves as well as Destroy, a tough-to-counter move that instant-kills the opponent.

Unlike the movie or books, though, Harry Potter also has the additional magic powers of walking through walls and blatantly ignoring people, as well as skipping half of his own game in order to finish the game in a magical 1:13:57.

The game is set in the First World War-era where anthropomorphic pigs engage in combat. Hogs of War features 3D graphics, a single-player career mode, and multiplayer.

Like Kirby 64, the game is a 2.5D platformer. Klonoa can only move in two dimensions, but everything is rendered in 3D, allowing the path to curve and objects outside the path to be interacted with. Klonoa can attack by throwing Huepow at enemies and having him return with the enemy. Klonoa will then hold the enemy over his head, which allows him either to throw it another enemy or bounce off of it to jump into the air.

In this run, lapogne36 improves over his previous movie by 10:41.51 minutes thanks to better optimization and glitches found. For more information about these improvements reading the author's submission comments is highly recommended.

In this run, mamuuuut & lapogne36 make quick work of this game by abusing multiple glitches to skip the majority of the game, making it look silly in the process.

Kurt is equipped with a special battle suit with an included parachute and a sniper interface (allowing precise shooting) embedded in your helmet. Sniper ammo is maintained separately from regular ammo, and some challenges in the game require you to snipe targets. Some powerups are necessary to proceed, such as the World's Smallest Nuclear Explosion (to blast open special doors) and mortars (fired via the sniper system).

Due to emulation issues, there is no music in this run.

Here, Sir Fortesque pulls out his own brand of trickery, warping around levels and outwitting the fiendish puzzles in order to stop Zarok and his forces as quickly as possible.

If you're here for the plot, though, you're missing the point - instead enjoy the impossibly fast action and nifty glitch abuse in this run of the longest presently-TASable game in the main series to date.

Hetfield90 beats this game in less than an hour thanks to careful routing and a few glitches, which are both detailed in the submission comments.

Unlike past Mega Man titles, Legends 2 also adds RPG elements into the mix, allowing players to talk to villagers and the like. Some may help in finding items, others aid the player with important information about The Mother Lode, and other areas on the island.

(Theoretically you can get the Z-Saber with only two defeated Robot Masters; from a speedrun perspective, however, once you finish Vile's Factory, it makes more sense to finish the stage you accessed it from than to game over and return to the map.)

If you still want to get your Zero fix, you can check out the run which aims for fastest time without collecting any items.

This time, X lays back and lets Zero put his money lightsaber where his mouth is, leaving Zero to fight off an entire army as well as Sigma. Zero does such a good job showing how much better he is than X that the series has been transformed for TASVideos to be a Zero series from here on out.

This submission improves the previous run by 12.53 seconds primarily through precise optimization of boss battles.

This is the first game in the series to allow character choice before each stage. Zero is chosen as often as possible, leaving X behind to gather dust. The abusable sword physics highlight Zero's superiority, especially when the sword is used while standing on the ground. Bosses fall very quickly, even when they have 127 health. See the Game Resources page and the author's comments for an explanation of how these tricks work.

There are about 5 minutes of action in this run, which consist mostly of flying through levels and a boss rush on the hardest difficulty mode, Xtreme.

This run is 12.90 seconds faster than the previous run.

We also have a run which completes all stages and a 100% run.

Watch it to learn how to ignore backseat drivers, or find out why swords are superior to guns.

We also have a run which only plays the stages necessary to complete the game. There is also a 100% run available.

Rescuing all Reploids on Xtreme mode is inadvisable for all but the most hardcore, yet this TAS makes it look easy. Not only that, it collects everything that can be collected before beating the game.

In this run, Rolanmen1 shows off X's max potential, getting every collectible in the whole game, while Zero watches from the side and enjoys the show.

This run by Rolanmen1 and FractalFusion plays on the hardest difficulty, Xtreme, and uses both X and Zero. The physics of Zero's sword make it the ideal boss killer, however some bosses have unavoidable invincibility periods, so X is sometimes used to attack during these periods. Some new tricks like duck dashing and saber climbing help save 19 seconds over the previous movie.

If you want to see a run that plays through all of the stages, see this run.

Rescuing all Reploids on Xtreme mode is inadvisable for all but the most hardcore, yet this TAS makes it look easy. Not only that, it collects everything that can be collected before beating the game.

In this run, Rolanmen1 uses additional items and tricks that are not present in the any% or all stages runs, such as X's Blade Armor. Though X still has less screentime than Zero, he is used to his fullest potential in the Gate stages.

This run completes all of the stages, showing off how nasty every level is on Xtreme difficulty. As always, Zero is much better suited to killing bosses than X. Zero also uses powerups that he wouldn't be able to use in an any% run.

The author, Rolanmen1, also improves the previous movie by 1:47.03 by taking a different route and using a new trick that allows him to skip the totem poles in Ground Scaravich's stage.

If you want to see the game completed as fast as possible, see the any% run.

Changes from the original release of Metal Gear Solid include

• Addition of first-person view.
• A level of difficulty for newcomers.
• Improved artificial intelligence for some enemies (including bosses) on higher difficulty settings.
• An "Alternate Round" for each difficulty, with different enemy placements.
• 300 VR Training missions on a separate disc.

Integral was planned for use in this branch from the start, because of a lengthy Liquid Snake monologue you can skip in Integral but not in the original version, as well as the added precision of analog controls; however, old PSX emulators could not play Intergral. With the switch to the higher-accuracy PSXHawk, theenglishman was able to TAS this version, playing on Extreme difficulty in the Normal Round, achieving the rank of "BIG BOSS" for his performance.

The raw improvement over the predecessor movie is 2:49.99, but the improvement in gameplay is actually much more than that; the raw time is inflated slightly compared to the predecessor movie because of the switch to PSXHawk, which results in slightly longer (but more accurate) loading times, on everything from transitions between rooms, to playing cutscenes, to playing CODEC conversations.

Changes from the original release of Metal Gear Solid include

• Addition of first-person view.
• A level of difficulty for newcomers.
• Improved artificial intelligence for some enemies (including bosses) on higher difficulty settings.
• An "Alternate Round" for each difficulty, with different enemy placements.
• 300 VR Training missions on a separate disc.

In this run, theenglishman's goal is to beat all the bosses in the game; this results in the run actually playing far more of Disc 1 than our currently published any% run, which skips literally every boss on that disc. Don't go thinking this is a low-glitch run, though!

In the Metal Gear universe, VR serves as a substitute for combat experience, allowing trainees to learn how to use weapons and participate in advanced combat scenarios without having to actually be on the battlefield, similar to the training programs in The Matrix. This concept of artificial or digital training serving as a poor man’s replacement for combat experience (particularly where child soldiers are concerned) has been a running theme in the series.

In this run, theenglishman sneaks, shoots, punches and investigates his way past the world leaderboards for each mission, this time skipping the Practice levels using SRAM, that saves him 34:31.71 minutes and makes the run much more entertaining overall compared to the one it obsoletes.

The author here uses a variety of tricks to skip parts of the game, and fly over other parts. Monkeys don't have wings, but that doesn't seem to matter here..

You, the Lin Kuei's most cunning assassin, are sent to steal an important document. However, this mission proves to be a test from a mysterious character (who turns out to be MK4's Quan Chi) who charges you upon retrieval of the document to recover an ancient medallion of untold power. Upon your return, Quan Chi reveals that he actually tricked you, and the medallion is the key to awakening the demon Shinnok (yup, the same baddie from MK4). Now a reluctant hero, you must pursue Quan Chi through hell itself hoping you get to Shinnok before him.

Technically speaking, this game represents the final evolutionary step in the MK series' 2D engine. The game takes the familiar 2D Mortal Kombat fighting environment and turns it into a hybrid fighting/platform game, where you must run and jump through hazardous levels as well as fight your way through both digitized and polygonal enemies. Sub-Zero's interface is the same as in every MK game, with the addition of the "use" and "turn around" buttons, an inventory, and a slight RPG twist that gives you EXP for defeating opponents which becomes new techniques and moves to execute in the game.

This is an improvement of an existing run. Besides a set of small improvements, the main differences of this run are a new shortcut in the sixth level and much more qualitative score management. All of this in total allowed Fly to reduce the time of the run by nearly 3 minutes.

No One Can Stop Mr. Domino is a puzzle game which sees you controlling the titular Mr. Domino (or one of his friends, if you prefer) as he zips around levels which can be best described as a racetrack. As the title suggests, you can't actually stop Mr. Domino - however, you can guide him around the track, speed him up and slow him down. He'll need to dodge obstacles as he aims to activate "tricks" which are placed around the board.

This is an improvement of 14.66 seconds over the previous run due to a change in domino placement in the level Grandpa's in The House, which leads to a shorter but possibly more disappointing ending animation. Mr. Domino proves once again that he cannot be stopped.

In this run, Samtastic improves his previous movie by 2.83 seconds thanks to a couple new glitches.

In this run, Samtastic rescues all 99 of Abe's fellow Mudokons, earning the good ending and unlocking some bonus features to boot.

This movie seemingly doesn't beat the previously published input time, due to playing on the new emulator, Bizhawk. But accurately speaking, this movie is 2:08.18 faster than the previous run.

If you like this movie, be sure to check out the other run of this game, where Samtastic & Dooty rush to the end of the game without caring about Abe's partners.

This is the condensed version of a 100% run, in which only one (required) Mudokon is saved. This movie should be perfect for those who don't care about the well-being of the Mudokon race and just want to see some Oddworld parkour. Naturally, this run gets the bad ending.

Samtastic improves the previous run by 2.69 seconds.

This movie is just as odd as the world it features. Abe for no reason decides to commit a baseness upon Glukkons and destroy all the labor force they have industriously collected. He doesn't care that it's his own mates who will die. He's not concerned that he too will be milled in the end. The only thing he has to say about it is "Oops". Twisted creep.

This playaround by Dooty (who also made the any% and 100% runs) aims to finish the game as fast as possible while killing as many Mudokons as possible.

The storyline of One Piece Mansion revolves around a successful landlord called Polpo. At the start of the game, Polpo's little sister is kidnapped by the owner of a rival mansion, Chocola. It is the player's job to battle through levels meeting Chocola's objectives and to eventually free Polpo's little sister.

Watch for the author's careful use of damage boosts and speed management to fly through this game.

The game more or less follows this series of events as you run along stages collecting Pepsi cans, while trying your best to avoid injury or public humiliation. The goal of every stage is to run along a set course, jumping or sliding out of harm's way and in the end reach a vending machine with... you guessed it! Pepsi of course!

Although it may not look like it due to emulation differences, N?K has improved over his previous movie by 174 frames of in-game time.

In this run, wesen improves the predecessor movie by adelikat by 6.20 seconds.

Here we get to watch an adorable skunk bounce on his pogo stick to defeat Badler the wolf and his mice henchmen.

Note for viewers: The PSX emulator PCSX-RR is unable to play the music featured in each stage. The encodes and downloadables have the music tracks edited in provided by the encoder.

Rayman is a side-scrolling platformer starring the titular Rayman, a big-nosed chap with no arms or legs. Rayman can jump and use his hair to hover for a short period of time. He can also attack by throwing his fists, or winding up his fists for a more powerful punch. He can occasionally find special powerups that grant him unlimited flying power, giving him the ability to navigate through tricky mazes.

scrimpeh and Got4n tear through this difficult game with a variety of glitches and physics exploits. For more details on how these glitches work, we recommend reading the authors' comments for information about this run.

Note that any% is the same as 100% for this game, as Rayman requires all the Toons to unlock the final battle with Mr Dark.

This third entry in the Resident Evil series follows Jill Valentine as she tries to escape Raccoon City. In addition to the hordes of zombies, she must also avoid a bio-organic weapon called the Nemesis, created by the evil Umbrella Corporation to hunt down and kill the remaining S.T.A.R.S. team members for being witnesses of their unethical and illegal experiments in the first game.

The objective of the minigame is to reach a specified point in a set time limit which can be extended by defeating enemies. Needless to say, the timer never even comes close to running out here.

This run begins from a save state which has the minigame unlocked, which can be generated by replaying the author's run of the full game. This is not normally allowed by the site, though an exception can be made if prior approval is granted.

The Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) are assigned to investigate a series of bizarre murders in Raccoon City. Watch the Alpha team's Jill Valentine as she blazes through a series of zombies while killing only one of them!

Note: There are cutscene-less encodes in the discussion thread.

While this TAS by paosidufygth seems slower than his previous attempt, it is in fact faster by about 12 seconds. This is because the emulator used, PSXjin, assumes a framerate of 60 FPS while the site assumes the PSX framerate to be the proper 59.292 FPS.

We also have a run as Blue completing another main quest of the game.

In this run, only the bare essentials are carried out, and many of the required battles are performed in an incredibly short span of time.

Also check out the run starring Lute, another main quest in the game.

This is an improvement over the last run, using two players instead of one.

For a TAS of a related game, see the Bishi Bashi Special publication.

The Samurai Shodown series differs from other well-known fighting games of its time in a couple of ways. First, all characters can use a weapon, usually a sword (or occasional animal friends, like a dog or a falcon). Second, the games focus more on hard hits instead of combos, showing a slowdown effect when powerful strikes are landed.

With tool assistance, all of this can be manipulated (to some extent). This run features quite a bit of planning and bonus management, the details of which can be found in the author's comments.

A complete 3D fighting game that allows for side steps, Soul Blade has twelve colorful fighters (ten standard, two hidden, plus additional costumes for a few fighters), each with various weapons and styles. The first ten can be used in all the combat modes, while the hidden two can only be used in versus and arcade mode.

Namco enhanced the arcade version (called Soul Edge) by adding a well done CGI intro, plus a story mode to the addition of the traditional team, survival, and time attack modes. The story mode goes into greater detail about each character, and is presented in an ancient book format. The story mode also allows you to unlock more of each characters' extra weapons. These weapons, which vary in lengths, stats, and durability, add to the options available players in the versus mode.

Soul Blade's sequel is SoulCalibur, both in the arcades and for the Sega Dreamcast.

Spikestuff improves the previous publication by 0"23 in in-game time, thanks to better optimisation.

In this run, arandomgameTASer manages to defeat Electro in record time thanks to a variety of level strategies and skips.