On my "to do" list for the past several years has been to improve my SDA Body Harvest 64 run. It can be improved by over an hour. Back in March of '09 I was able to perform a 1:15 test run without knowing how to do two major tricks, plus the usual sloppiness associated with an exploratory test run.
But it's unlikely I'll ever get around to doing the real thing. So instead I'm going to dump everything I (and several other people) know about Body Harvest in case an intrepid TASer wants to fulfill my wildest fantasy. Sub 1:00 should be within reach.
The following blob of text is an amalgamation of conversations between LeCoureur, Kid Einstein, Leftysheroes, and myself. Some can be found on the SDA and GameFAQs BH boards still, others were from e-mails or PMs.
USEFUL GLITCHES / TIPS:
Ingame timer is weird: The timer starts running from pretty much the second you turn on the game. It runs during the opening credits ("DMA"), during the text scroll that gives the background story of the game, and when you're selecting which file to play. The timer does NOT run when you're inside a building or when a block of dialogue is on the screen. Each time the game is paused (only while outside) the timer adds on approximately 3 seconds for no apparent reason. For these reasons, the game should be clocked by real time IMO, not by the ingame time.
When you are walking as Adam it is actually faster to quickly alternate pressing left and right while walking forward so that you do a small zigzagging motion forward. Walking like that saves about 7 seconds per minute over just walking straight.
You can skip the red transitions between worlds. Yeah, I feel dumb.
High speed explosion: Now you know that one type of goliath beetle bug that beams down with a harvester wave? The one with large mandibles who likes to back up really far then ram your vehicle? Get in a vehicle and whittle its health down really low somehow, low enough that ONE ram from the ramming bug will destroy the vehicle. Let the ramming bug ram your vehicle. The vehicle will explode because of its low health, but somehow the velocity is transferred into Adam’s body and you'll fly horizontally. You don't gain any height and you fall at the same speed as normal, but as long as you're in the air you'll have huge horizontal speed. The “finish Java 1 quickly” trick uses this but I don't know of any other useful spots.
Text skips: In some cases, Daisy’s intrusive messages can be avoided by moving quickly or avoiding a trigger. The one example I can think of is at the first village of Greece 1; if you get into the bridge switch’s building quickly enough, Daisy will never, ever tell you that she is detecting an enemy presence nearby.
Seam walking: Sometimes if an object is sticking out of the ground, you are able to glitchily run up the seam that is created where the object meets the ground. Examples: the entrance to the Ancient Tunnel in Greece 3; you can run up the right side of the entrance structure reach its roof. The iceberg in Siberia 2; you can run up the seam where the iceberg meets the hillside, and reach the top of the iceberg.
Get out of car, move through wall: If you have a vehicle wedged up tightly against a wall, and there is nowhere for Adam to exit the vehicle, then sometimes you will be pushed through the nearest wall when you try to exit the vehicle. Examples: Java 2. After getting a tank from the military base you use it to blast through a set of wooden gates near the Radio Tower. If you take a car such as a Kubelwagen and wedge it tightly against those wooden gates, you can pass through the first one; you’ll be trapped between the gates and will have to reset. Also, this can be done on the Comet at most of the yellow gates with bluish purple lasers blocking the way. Wedge Alpha 1 up between the yellow gates, push against the lasers, and get out; you will end up on the other side of the gate, but Alpha 1 will be beyond reach on the other side. I haven't found any skips for this.
Roll into water, save time: If you go up to the edge of some water and do a side-roll into that water you will follow the contour of the ground while the rolling animation is going and when it ends you float up to the surface. In some cases this trick can give you a useful head-start in trying to do some long distance swimming.
When you get out of water you go through a slow “get up to my feet” animation before you can move again. If you press Z to shoot while this animation is going you cancel the animation and regain control sooner.
Warp boost. If you happen to be located WHERE some bugs beam down, WHEN they beam down, you will be boosted away rapidly.
Magic teleportation of doom: Sometimes when you try to get in a vehicle you do not get in the vehicle but instead you are magically teleported halfway across the level and left unable to move. This has happened only a handful of times to me. Once I went to get in the Bulldog in the military base in Java 2, but instead I was warped to an empty void (possibly below the ground); twice I tried to get in the custom hotrod in America 1--once I zapped into the middle of the street, right by the hotrod, and once I was zapped to the stage’s northern shield wall, 50 feet in the air, near the Bates Motel. When this happens, the only thing you can do is manipulate the camera. You cannot pause, shoot, or move. Completely bizarre.
Never had that happen to me. Would be pretty weird in a run.
If you have two “helicopter” vehicles (this includes, Hueys, the UFO, the Hangman B, Spectres, etc.), you can transfer liftoff power between them. Just land, get out quickly, get in the other vehicle, and watch in amazement as it takes less time than usual to reach liftoff.
Getter77 says:
Of the various "special" weapons in the game, one upgrades the sniper rifle to some kind of howitzer. The recoil on that thing is the highest of any videogame ever made. If you fire it from something like a car, from a high spot, you will literally be rocketed backwards across nearly the entire CONTINENT, or until you hit a blue forcewall. Way back in the day, when I got totally stuck in Siberia, I just kept using that over and over again for great fun. "Travellin' Time!"
No applications for this have been found. Assembling the gun would probably take longer than any tricks found for it, especially since by the time you have it the level is almost done. I included it for completition's sake.
Now for the level tricks.
GREECE 1:
Skip most of the level: Using a motorcycle or a Saloon you can drive up the hill to the processor, avoiding the need for dynamite, the hangar key, and a tank. Just drive up the hill at full speed, then perform a handbrake (hold A and B) at the top to climb onto the plateau.
Saloon: The yellow Saloon cars are faster than the slow blue Nico's Supplies trucks. Drive them when possible (e.g. after lowering the bridge at the beginning turn to the right and a Saloon is waiting).
Potential world shattering trick: The starting land mass is connected to the same island as the final alien tower. If there was a way to glitch through the blue wall you could skip the entire Greece world (assuming the tower would be there and not disabled until the last proc is killed).
GREECE 2:
Skip most of the level: Take the motorcycle to the Talosus Statue, and ramp off the ground behind the statue into the water, facing east. When the motorcycle lands in the water get out and swim east to the processor’s island. In doing so, you avoid the Sun Shield and the entire southern half of the stage.
The main thing that you want to watch out for here is that in the hilly area right before the main jump you could accidentally do a small jump which causes you to lose a good bit of speed and not be able to make the actual jump into the water. This one is tricky but very doable. I have about a 50% success rate.
Note: Find out whether the sunshield saves time or not (probably not) versus the machine gun from the mine in greece 1 vs. just using the pistol. Remember, of course, to shoot the proc in the head (does a lot more dmg than the body).
GREECE 3:
Skip Atlantis altogether (*could not replicate*): East of the Pointer Statues there's Bulldog sitting there, at this spot the gap across the water is narrower than anywhere else. Take a motorcycle to the top of the green hill then drive straight at the gap by the Bulldog. If you hit it at the right angle you'll get crazy air, enough to hit near the top of the opposite cliff. Exit the motorcycle on impact and you'll just barely be placed on solid ground as the motorcycle falls into the river. From here run to the nearby Saloon and drive to the airport like normal.
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Here is what you need to do to make the jump across the canyon (or at least give yourself a realistic chance of making it):
If you stand in front of the bulldog and look northeast there will be what looks like a flattened v in the terrain in front of you with both sides going up at approximately 30 degree angles. The lowest point in the middle of the v is the takeoff point. It is much easier to line the bike up with the point if you zoom the camera out.
When you are lined up with the point look out to the northeast and you will see a area where the other cliff is closer than anywhere else. Off to the right of that point there is a thick black line. To have the best chance you need to line yourself up so that vertical lines on your target is about an eighth of an inch to the left of that line while still pointing towards the bottom point of the v.
Once you do that put on the brakes and start backing up the hill. When you near the top your bike will wobble a bit to the left and then start turning right. When you see your bike start to turn to the right that is the cue to throw on the gas. If you are lined up good when you hit the bottom of the hill your bike should redirect itself back towards the takeoff point and you should jump far and hit the cliff high on the other side where you can jump out as LeCoureur described.
Unfortunately at least for me even though I know what to do it is still at best a 1 in 10 shot since your aim has to be absolutely perfect to make it and just being a hair off will cause you to miss.
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I can't do this one. I need a video because it feels like I'm missing something. LC said it was “brutally difficult,” which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence since that assumes you know what you're doing already.
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For the processor the fastest way to kill it is so start tapping the brakes when you get close enough to start damaging him so that by the time you get up close to him he should have very little or no health left.
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For the processor you can continually bump against him head on with the plane and just rail into him. I didn't do that in my run because the last 2 attempts failed because my plane exploded because whether the plane gets hurt from this is very random + I did that totally crazy plane crash trick that I never even knew about so I played it cautious.
JAVA 1:
Quicker level beginning: Instead of running west over to the village/Harvester wave, swim across the bit of water to the north of Alpha 1. There’s a Trekker sitting right there which you'll use for the next trick.
Skip most of the level (*could not replicate*): It is possible to cross the eastern bay and reach the Processor without an airboat or any northern island adventures. Get in that Trekker and head to the cluster of buildings on the eastern side of the south island (to the northeast of the Alpha 1). Use the “high speed explosion” glitch facing east, to land in the water about halfway across the bay. Continue swimming east, headed for a tiny stand-able spot of land sticking up out of the water about 3/4 of the way across. After stopping there to regain your breath, finish the swim. From here you should go on foot south to the bunker for ammo and a rifle, then get in the airboat to go fight the Processor.
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In Java 1 I tried going behind the alpha-1 at the start, killing the flying enemies, and using the health they drop in an attempt to extend my life bar so I can swim to the island with the functioning airboat. Didn't work. Health drain is much too fast + it's too far. Looks like you have to use the damage boost method.
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Unfortunately I don't know how to do the Java 1 skip either. I've only made it across once and I think that was more a freak accident/lucky break than how you are supposed to do it. The biggest problem is that while I can get the bug to do what I want it to do as far as ramming the jeep it just doesn't send me far enough into the water to make it across.
JAVA 2:
Skip the Army Base. Take a Kubelwagen to the blown up bunker in the northwest. One of the polygons on the north side of the alcove can be driven up, just the right seam of the polygon actually. This is tricky: you have to drive up this polygon at an angle, then when you near the top, jam the control stick to the left. The Kubelwagen will push over the top of the slope, but sort of get stuck in the hill. From here you can get out of the car and proceed on foot, or jiggle the control stick around and hope the Kubelwagen comes unstuck; in any case, you are slightly east of the Jelly that is sapping the Radio Tower’s power. You have just saved about a minute.
Skip the Radio Tower sequence. You don't have to kill the Jelly on the Radio Tower, you can go crashing through the Roach Gunners instead. Using a Trekker from the Radio Station, drive down to the river and onto the thin bit of land slightly to the right of the path. From there, kill the first Roach Gunner with mortars. Carefully drive off the thin bit of land, to the other side of the river, and up to the next Roach Gunners. Of the three there, mortar the MIDDLE one to death, then drive straight up the hole you've now opened past them; when doing so, stay back a safe distance or the Roach Gunners will smack your Trekker and blow it up. This saves about 20 seconds of travel time and cutscene time in dealing with the Jelly.
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Although interesting, I don't understand the speed aspect of this trick – after the seam skip you're right next to the jelly you have to kill. To not kill it you have to drive to a side area, change vehicles, come back, do some fancy grenading from an abutment, and then drive across. Why not just kill the jelly and go on? The cutscene is like 5 seconds.
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Note that it doesn't seem possible to blow up the Skull tunnel with anything other than hand grenades.
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End of Java 2 it's better to just ignore the blue APC and kill the proc with the jeep. I think the jeep has less HP but is faster than the APC, right? So that makes going to java 3 + the first village smoother too.
JAVA 3:
Cut out a huge part of the level: At Rua-Rua East, take the airboat a few feet straight out into the water, then stop and aim to your left. Go full speed facing south into the bay and up the steep hill (you have to aim for the right side of this slope). When your airboat's momentum runs out at the top of the hill, get out of the airboat (it will slide back down into the water but you will be up on the cliff). Run to the left; there is a “lava” polygon that will eat roughly half of your health bar when you cross it. Now drop down the hill -- you are in the area with a Kubelwagen and rocket launcher bunker, normally accessed from a tunnel near Colonel Murtz’s house. From here dont worry about the rocket launcher, just run down the path to that tunnel and reach Colonel Murtz’s village without saving Rua-Rua West, getting the idol of Rua-Rua, or taking the Javanese Queen.
Skip the Swamp Fever Medicine: When you reach Colonel Murtz’s village take a Trekker and drive the road north like normal. When you reach the small village where a Harvester wave appears (it appears AFTER getting the Swamp Fever Medicine) drive up the hills to the left and drop down to the beach. Get out of the Trekker and swim for the long, narrow island to the northwest (though you’ll want to kill the Turrets and water bugs before doing so). From this island the Processor is visible to the north; use a weapon with some distance to kill it (Rifle or Machine Gun are best). Now swim to the Processor’s island for the save point.
JAVA 4:
Hop the blue fence into Blackness Naval Base. Using a Trekker, jump the water gap over to the base like normal. Drive along the fence, then go right around the bottom corner. Head to the top of the nearby hill and turn around to face the fence. Drive down the hill, then jam right on the control stick to clip the hill weirdly and pop into the air. With some luck you should clear the fence and land inside the base, although the Trekker may get stuck on top of the fence. This avoids traveling down to the big ship and ramming the gate. There's another spot you can clip to jump over the fence, on the hill to the right after you've jumped over the first water gap; this spot would be faster but it's much less consistent.
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To get into the naval base the best place to do it IMO is immediately to the right on the hill after jumping the gap. To get in you have to drive facing perpendicular towards the blue shield wall until you are just about to hit the left side of the hill where it steepens. Once you get there jam the control stick to the right and you should go flying over the wall. It may take a couple attempts but that would still be faster than driving around to the hill on the other side.
Skip the Java Kris Knife: With a gyrocopter, fly south from Blackness Naval Base. Zig-zag around the Roach Gunners and Jellies, all the way to the bottom of the map, along the western edge seems safest. Turn east, swoop under the bridge, and send some rockets into the Processor’s face. Unfortunately the game doesn’t like that the storm is still going and will freeze at least 3 times out of 4 when doing this trick, so make sure you saved in Java 3. While the Processor’s death cutscene is rolling, lightning will destroy your gyrocopter in real time and possibly even damage you as well. For your daring escape you need to run to the nearby Trekker and head up the hill. Switch over to the other Trekker by the Jelly, you may need its full healthbar. From the Jelly, go east and then follow the road north all the way to the shield portal. When you do this, you do not have to go to the Water Temple, Fire Temple, or Great Temple, nor do you have to stop by the Earth Temple on your first trip through Java 2. Saves around 10 minutes.
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For the storm skip it is actually possible to kill the processor and fly to the shield portal if you take the Zero in the water instead of the Gyrocopter. What I usually do is fly due south as close to the western shield wall as possible until I'm on the same horizontal level as the processor and then I swing a hard left and blast him in the face with rockets. If you get a quick kill on the processor you should have about 20% of the health bar on the zero left after his death animation. For your escape you want to fly north as close to the blue wall as possible again. I'm not sure but I think flying close to the blue wall gives you at least some protection from the lightning, but it could just be luck.
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For the Java storm skip I never experienced any freezing as LC described. It's probably a problem with his cart, perhaps similar to my (unique?) random freezing problems in the America 2 desert.
AMERICA 1:
Glitch through the fence at the start with Karl’s custom hotrod: Get the hotrod like normal, then drive up the hill towards the police barricade. Eventually a Scorpion will notice you and will run up the hill shooting lasers at you. When he nears, accelerate into the fence; when he is on top of you, he will stop shooting lasers and will switch to swiping with his claws. His first swipe should hit the police truck on the other side of the fence; his second swipe should push your hotrod through the fence. Now you can proceed to the school like normal and use the bus to knock over the fence blocking the ramp, and not backtrack to get the hotrod. Saves about a minute.
Skip the storm drain: When you have jumped across the broken bridge in the custom hotrod, head south to the broken Halsall Bridge. Drive at full speed along the eastern side (the side to YOUR left). When you reach the southern tip of the bridge, four Roach Gunners will teleport in. What SHOULD happen is, you are inside the leftmost Roach Gunner’s clipping when he teleports in, and so you will be “warp-boosted” upwards and across the broken bridge. (Thanks KID EINSTEIN.) You skip the whole storm drain and save more than a minute.
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You don't even need to clip inside a roach. You can make the jump over the Halsall bridge with the V-8 hiboy normally, straight on, even though it looks like it violates all physical laws and even video game logic. The developers made it so you just kinda levitate through the air in a huge parabola, which is why I didn't even think of trying this in the run. Pretty wild. The roach boost does give major style points though.
AMERICA 2:
Fly a helicopter through the shield portal and beat America 2 in about 30 seconds: There are two cacti on the ground preventing you from taking a helicopter and even most cars through the portal that connects to America 2. The cacti are invincible to most kinds of damage, but the one thing I found that can knock them over is a mutant. So in the normal course of running through America 1 a mutant should appear. When you reach the hospital and get a helicopter, instead of killing the processor right away (if you do the mutant disappears), fly all the way north to the shield portal, land the helicopter nearby, and stand near the cacti on foot. When the mutant arrives (shouldn't be long), in the course of his jumping around you, with a little luck he’ll hit a cactus and it will be knocked over. With only one of the cacti down, it's possible to fit one of the small helicopters through the hole and fly straight over all of America 2. Once the cactus is knocked down you have to fly back to the processor and kill it to open the portal, then fly back; but this will still be ridiculously faster than playing America 2 like normal.
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In America 1 the cacti can also be destroyed by having the helicopter enemies explode on them as they die (make their corpses land on it). This is pure awesomeness because you don't have to rely on harvesters making mutants quickly. Only one cactus needs to be removed.
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If you play on foot you can use these tricks (you shouldn't, just do the helicopter trick that shatters America into a billion pieces – but I'll include these for hardcore BH nerds)
Skip the battle in Blackfoot Gulch: Black Adam will warp in and threaten you, but if you just drive straight through to the other side of town, he’ll warp away without fighting.
Skip the rocket launcher: When you reach the Terra Pueblos, run over to the big rock blocking your progress. Just stand there in the corner and push against the rock, eventually the big earthworms will try to attack you but will mostly hit the rock instead. After a little bit of punishment the rock blows up and you don't need the rocket launcher.
Skip the second half of the level: When I say second half, I mean the collecting of the totem pieces, the spirit quest, and the Indian village in general. When you reach the Monster Bug in the creek, you normally head south and catch a glimpse of some Roach Gunners across the water. With the Monster Bug, you can cross the water, skirt the edge of the mountainside, and finally drive up it and drop down into the valley of the Processor. The best bet is then to get into the damaged Huey and knock the Processor out from the air. Alternatively, you can take the Monster Bug over to Base Station 508 and drive up the mountainside there to drop down for a fully-powered Huey. The first method is a little bit faster though more risky.
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I don't know how to do that, but it's also possible in that general area to simply walk up the hill and drop into the military base with the choppers and skip the totems that way. It's hard to describe but it's near the water and it's not too difficult -- you just have to know where to step.
AMERICA 3:
Fly a helicopter through the shield portal and beat the Processor in less than a minute. If you take the little red and white helicopter from America 1 you’ll have no trouble getting through. It's possible with a bigger Huey too but much harder. (Thanks KID EINSTEIN.) The UFO part should be played like normal.
SIBERIA 1:
Skip the whole stage: To get to Petrozansk, you have to cross a tiny expanse of water. Do so, then turn right. The mountainside is made up of rows and columns of polygons, and either by coincidence or intentional programming, the column of polygons IMMEDIATELY to the right after you cross the water can be walked up. On the lower couple of polygons, you climb slowly. But after a little while, you pick up speed. And you just keep going up. And up. And up. Right up over the top of the mountain. Once you’re over the top, there's a convenient boat you can use to kill the processor. Siberia 1 now takes about a minute and a half.
SIBERIA 2:
Skip the chemical facility and rocket launcher: This involves getting past the iceberg, obviously. Go to the small strip of land where you would normally fire the rocket launcher from. You can walk up the hill a little bit, then run towards the iceberg. You'll fall close to the water but once you touch the iceberg you should walk straight up the seam between the iceberg and the land, and end up standing on top of the iceberg. Now the Hovering enemies will hit the iceberg while trying to shoot you, and it will be damaged the same as the rock in America 2. When the iceberg blows up swim back to your high speed boat and continue past.
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Instead of getting on top of the glacier and having the enemy blow it up (very difficult/random) I just run along the right shore past the glacier all the way to the area where you can run up a hill to the entrance to the nuke facility. It takes approximately a minute. Much easier. I don't think it's even much slower than melting the glacier. I did that twice and it took awhile waiting for the enemy to hit it with multiple bolts + swimming back to the boat.
NOTE: For a TAS, test/compare these two methods.
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Shortcut to the power plant: Past the iceberg, there’s a sort of valley on the northern side of the bay, right by the power plant. The hill in the northwest corner of this valley can be run up, placing you at the entrance to the power plant and thus skipping the need to drive through the whole southwest corner of Siberia 2. Now do the nuclear reactor mission to get the Spectre jet.
SIBERIA 3:
Skip the underwater portion of the level: The processor doesn’t appear until the bomb timer runs out, and the workers' deaths don't matter, so spend that time setting up this trick. When the timer starts, use the Hangman B to set the Spectre on the small shore/beach with the tunnel entrance (the southern one). Then land the Hangman B on that same shore next to the Spectre. Run through the tunnel back to the upper area, run to the foreman's shack and wait for the timer to run out. When it does, go in and talk to him to get the Aqua Tank. Drive forward for a little bit, then turn left, get out, and swim to that shore with the Hangman B. Get in the Hangman B, fly close to the water, and LIFT the Aqua Tank up out of the water. Fly north to the Processor, drop the Aqua Tank into the water. Crash the Hangman B into the water and it will explode--now DIVE DOWN to the Aqua Tank (only thing that diving is useful for in the entire game and it's not even intended), get in the tank, and blast the Processor. When it’s dead, exit the Aqua Tank and float to the top to get in the nearby boat. Drive to the southern shore and the Spectre is waiting for you there to fly into Siberia 4. This all sounds complicated but the idea is, by carrying the Aqua Tank you skip all the underwater driving, and then the Spectre is ready to be accessed as quickly as possible.
SIBERIA 4:
Pretty much the same as my old speed run -- except I completely sucked at this point and could save like 3-4 minutes with pure optimization and non-horrid play.With the Spectre from Siberia 2 you can quickly fly to the military base instead of driving around and going through the tunnel. Instead of driving to the SCUD Launcher in the Fist tank, it is better to simply FLY west over the battlefield in the Hangman B and carry the SCUD Launcher back, dropping it into the fenced area.
There seems to be no way to skip the SCUD launch. Even if you're halfway across the map from the SCUD truck when it blows up (you can shoot it from very far with the Spectre's missiles) you'll die automatically.I don't remember what happens if you drop it into deep water, maybe worth a try, but I have a feeling it'd just auto game over (but maybe not, it's something to test).
You don't actually have to drive the SCUD into the building. Just smash it into the ground ASAP and that mission is over (doing it too close might kill you, so be careful).
When the processor is defeated, you receive a message that Alpha 1 is under attack. You can just ignore that and head straight to the shield generator. If you do so, then try to fight the boss without saving and resetting, the Alpha 1 will still be under attack. If that other Alpha 1 is destroyed before you win the boss battle you will receive a game over. It should be possible to win before that, but to make it easier you can save when prompted and just reset, and the enemies attacking Alpha 1 will simply have disappeared and you can fight the boss no problem.
As a pointless aside, I wonder what would happen if you maneuvered the SCUD missile all the way back to the alpha-1. I don't see why it's not possible. It'd be funny, even if nothing bad happened..
COMET:
Jump over the acid river: When you reach the north-east part of the map (with the green rocks that give you Resonators), you can drive west at high speeds, up into the hills, and ramp over most of the destructive acid river, you'll have probably less than 1/4 of your health left once you finally drive out of the acid. With this jump you cut off pretty much the entire perimeter of the Comet, saving around ten minutes. You'll probably want to save at the save spot immediately to the south, from the start of the level to there should take less than 2 minutes.
Potential trick: skip destroying the four comet engines. If you use the 'move through wall' glitch mentioned near the start of this post you can get past the gate that leads to the building where you kill the brain. Once you do that though, there doesn't seem to be a way out from behind the gate so you're stuck. If there were a way out it would possibly save a few minutes of destroying the engines.