Castlevania: Lords of Shadow glitches & things of interest FAQ v. 1.0 (28. 8. 2013) Written and partially discovered by AKheon & findlestick Table of contents: ------------------------- 1. Introductions & glossary & abbreviations 2. Core mechanics 3. Level-by-levels 4. Contact info, credits, etc. Version history: - v. 1.0 (28. 8. 2013) First one published. Mostly everything should be in order. File size: 157kb. 1. Introduction & glossary & abbreviations This is a FAQ that is interested in sharing all sorts of hidden knowledge regarding this game, mainly about glitches and speedrun-relevant strategies. Writing was started very spontaneously, and since many people had already researched the game for sequence breaks and techniques, it was easy to continue where they had left off. Castlevania: LoS is a multi-platform game, but only the PS3 version has been used for testing this stuff out. Things might vary in unforeseen ways on the XBox360 or PC versions. Another thing, only the original, unpatched game has been used in testing. Much of this stuff may be fixed if you've downloaded any patches. Too bad for you, you're missing out on all the fun. For now, the DLC levels aren't included in this listing. Maybe some day... AKheon's note: In comparison to my old God of War glitch FAQs, I have a better approach to documenting things now. I make an effort to test all the skips myself so that I can write actual good instructions on how to do them. Just a link to a video with little to no description no longer suffices... And it's better this way - imagine if some days the videos were gone? You'd be left with nothing but a dead link, and no knowledge on the trick itself. I won't have that in this FAQ. Glossary: Speedrun: playing a game or a part of it with the intention of completing it as quickly as possible. Glitch: programming errors. Useful for creating amusement or even skipping parts of the levels. Not all glitches are good, though. Launch / Lift-up: launch is an attack for launching enemies in air. Typically these moves allow Gabriel himself to ascend in air as well, a speciality we shall call a lift-up. Break-out: the character regaining control in a scenario where you're normally deprived of control, like a cutscene or a long attack animation. Grapple point / rappel point = used interchangeably for those blue points you examine and use for climbing and other navigation. Out of bounds = A term for the mostly empty area that is outside normal level boundaries. You can get there by various means in many of the levels. Abbreviations: LoS = Lords of Shadow HC = Holy Cross OoB = Out of Bounds c: = credits to � = note to self, have to expand later or verify something Fastest completion time of Lords of Shadow? Truth be told, not too many people have speedran this game so far, despite the interesting tricks and the potential it has. Recently (2013 summer) Findlestick did individual level runs of all the game's levels and published them in one big video. The runs use most of the currently known skips and tricks, and they serve as the speed records for the time being. See findlestick's run here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRzneWAKa-s 2. Core mechanics General speed tips: - whenever there's a balancing pole, jump along it as far as you can. Moving on balancing beams is just too slow normally. Same goes for those spider's web threads. - same idea for swamps. Jump as deep into the swamp you can instead of slowly drudging through all the way. - You can use Ultimate Light to whirl over swamp surface as well as those balancing poles and spider's webs. So once you have the move, you'll be able to save some time using it. - a little more info below, in the "Fastest Movement Style"-section. Fastest movement style: Until you get Sprint, quick rolling is the fastest way to move in the game. You can do it by either tapping block while pushing analog stick to the direction you want to go, or holding block while tapping analog stick to a direction. In the first method, Gabriel will attempt to always turn around to the direction you are pushing the analog stick to with a special animation at the end of the roll... and this actually saves a little bit of time because it cancels the cooldown of one roll every once in a while! Pretty neat. The advantage of the second method on the other hand is that you can freely backwards or side roll without Gabriel trying to turn forward. What sort of advantage is that? Well... maybe in TAS-conditions backwards rolls could be better than forward rolls in some cases... eh, I'm just grasping at straws here. Then, after you get it, Sprint is generally the fastest way to move, but you have to re-activate it quite often. You can do this re-activation during a jump, which may in some cases be useful. Sprinting speed also carries over to your jump, which will come in handy. Sprint cuts off if Gabriel hits some collision or if there are even small elevation differences on the ground, which is pretty annoying. However, occasionally Sprint can glitch up (after doing Shoulder Charge for example) so that it re-activates when hitting collision instead, allowing for more seamless running than usual. Maybe it would be useful to purposefully activate this glitch at some areas where the ground is very bad for normal Sprinting? Finally, Shoulder Charge. It gives you noteworthy speed, but only for a moment. You can spam it and move far faster than with quick rolling, but you will also drain your magic away in no time and it can be hard to control. But it should come in handy at some places, if you have Shadow magic to spare. Also, a secondary asset of Shoulder Charge is that during speed boost the rest of the game world slows down, allowing you to get past traps like the elemental traps at Music Box relatively safely. Generally about big jumps: Unfortunately, Gabriel's normal jump is quite inadequate. Can't reach very high or far with it, and this can be hard to get used to if you've already been spoiled by the innate double jump that God of War and many other games bestow upon your character. But I guess that's Castlevania for you: double jump has to be earned. So, any simple ways you can make your life easier when jumping? Well, no, mostly you have to wait until you get better gear for improving your jumps. After 3-2 you get Cyclone Boots which allow you to Sprint, giving your jumps twice more length, and after 8-4 you also get Seraphic Wings that finally allow you that elusive second jump (among other things). That's a long way to go in a new game, but fortunately LoS also gives you the option of revisiting older levels with all your gear. So at least one speedrunning category will enjoy the benefits of having full power (including full sequence breaking power!) anywhere in the game. More about both high and long jumps in sections below. Many of the listed basic ideas were first demonstrated by satvara or findlestick. Long jumping: Long jumping of any sort is a nightmare at the start of the game. As said, your normal jump doesn't carry far, and you can hardly extend it with air attacks because most of them have the uncanny tendency to kill any horizontal momentum you may have when doing them. The only exception is the first air Direct/Area attack, which lets you hover in air a little bit after your jump's natural momentum has withered away. Guess one decent asset you have at your disposal from pretty early on is the Avalanche Punch, once you've purchased it. Normally the move is designed so that it is not possible for you to move forward during it - in fact, doing it near ground level, Gabriel actually goes backwards doing the attack. However, if you start charging it with your back towards your destination, and turn right before the discharge, Gabriel does get a decent amount of extra length to his jump. Note that doing this is tricky, especially with enemies around because Gabriel is all too willing to start auto-targeting them instead. Landslide Punch works well in conjunction with Avalanche Punch, helping with the turning around you need to do during the jump. Another thing that makes your life easier is Holy Water. A little known fact is that Holy Water actually has strong anti-gravity properties, helping you stay or even rise up in air... but the main point here is, Gabriel slowly slides forward in air each time you throw one. You can't throw too many Waters in a row before plummeting down, but mixing things up with an air Direct attack or the high jumping techniques (listed below) you can inch a considerable length in air with mainly just Holy Waters. Daggers also make Gabriel move in air, but a lot worse, and they don't have much of an anti-gravity capability either. Maybe it's worth a try in a desperate situation, because it is better than nothing... Finally you get Cyclone Boots, which allow you to Sprint. A jump during a Sprint is about twice as long as normal, solving many of your long jumping problems. The increased speed also carries on to double jump and first air Direct attack, helping further. Last but definitely not least, there's the Seraphic Wings that allow you to double jump. Naturally this helps you jump longer, especially combined with Sprint. You can also use your second jump after some air attacks, allowing many different combinations that let you move even further than Sprint double jump. For example, start with Sprint jump. At the end of the jump do first Direct air attack, then Holy Water. Then do another jump, then another Direct air attack and Holy Water. This jump carries over even the long gaps inside Music Box. For some reason a backwards double jump doesn't have a speed cap like forward double jump has, allowing you to move much further, granted you have a decent fall during which you can build up your backwards double jump speed at first. Doing backwards double jump near ground level is not beneficial at all, but in good circumstances you get much more distance with it than with Sprint double jump! Video demonstration: 1, Music Box, featuring backwards double jump and Gauntlet attacks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siux-6iAkRc 2, Music Box, the optimal solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vstmHRW34hE "Assisted Long Jump" In spring 2012 another new technique was found by Findlestick. If Gabriel jumps in a chasm at the very instant a nearby enemy tries to strike him, and then jumps again after respawning, the enemy's now glitched up strike gives Gabriel a large momentum boost (and makes him fly long ways through the air). Apparently Gabriel can also sometimes fly upwards, but it can't be controlled or reproduced at will. This trick is useful mainly during new game, where your long jumping tools are not available until later, but it can make your replay jumps also a lot longer or higher. A random YouTube user gave an anecdotal report that he had a similar glitch at the Ogre's hand battle. He claims to have tried to double jump over the hand, but instead got hit at some point during his jump. He claimed that this hit multiplied Gabriel's jump momentum so much that he ended up extremely high above the map, and that he could see the map far below until Gabriel fell to his death. Still to be tested further. � Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjN9V4FB1s Shoulder Charge long jump (aka "Charged Jump" - c: findlestick) In July 2013 another technique to give Gabriel significant horizontal air movement was discovered. Most ground-move animations - when done off ledges - will continue even as Gabriel starts falling. Usually nothing special happens, Gabriel just falls down to his death while doing the move, however if you do a Shoulder Charge off a ledge, Gabriel will go flying horizontally across gaps. Depending on the ledge that it's done on, you can get much further distance than your regular sprint/double-jump. And as a bonus you get your 2nd jump at the end of it. However, Gabriel loses some height during this technique, so it's less useful at areas that have death collision placed too close to ledges (like the Music Box f.e). To start this glitch, you first have to carefully jump over the small invisible barrier that's been placed in front of most ledges in this game (possibly to prevent an exploit like this). Just a normal jump that moves very slightly forward close to the ledge suffices. Although, it depends on the area how easy this is to do - in some areas there's more room after the invisible ledge before you fall down, in some areas there's almost none. Then, just get into a good position and Shoulder Charge to the direction you want. The amount of distance you get (& height loss) depends - not only - on the type of ledge you do the technique. But also on exactly where Gabriel is standing on any particular ledge. Placing Gabriel's feet only just beyond the ledge barrier (or on top of it), allows the best distance & lessens height-loss. If you do it with Gabriel's feet too far over the lip, he tends to drop like a rock. Tho, there is always the exception to the rule. You'd think that the good news ends there, but there's more! During a Charged Jump, the game thinks - to a degree - that Gabriel is still standing on ground. That means that during a Charged Jump you can do ground moves in air...yes, even launches. This lets you combine a Charged Jump with a launch+high jump, which potentially allows Gabriel to get out & up to new out-of-bounds areas. Most ground moves can be done in air through this exploit. It seems that you can't block in air, though, and therefore some prompts that start with a block can't be used - for example another Shoulder Charge. Ultimate Light and Ultimate Shadow also have some kind of restraint on them so that you can't do them in air. Otherwise, feel free to experiment with combos and other actions while falling down... you can even shatter a Dark Crystal while falling to a chasm! It also has the added bonus that, should you find an out-of-bounds ledge that is just too tiny to start a sprint/double jump from, or not enough room to turn Gabriel around to do a double backwards jump, you can instead do a Charged Jump. Since it requires no extra movement to start (unlike the other long jumps). It's useful to note that there is actually another move in the game that allows a similar horizontal air movement effect when done off ledges, and that is Ground Cutter. It doesn't seem to be as effective as far as pure movement goes, but at least it doesn't cost any Shadow magic, and could be easier to do at some ledges than the predominant Shoulder Charge variation. Might be a viable alternative in some cases. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vids (of Shoulder Charge Jump @ 0:09) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Zu2BhZ2Yo 2, Ground moves in air (@ 2:11 onwards) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chiWM9bw1Es High jumping: At the very start, your high jumping tools suck. At best you can do a running Rising Assault repeatedly that gets you about 2x normal jumping height. But since you are not pushed forward in air doing this, you won't get far at all. The first real aid comes after getting Dark Gauntlet. Now you have access to both Avalanche Punch and Landslide Punch, both of which are useful in high jumping. Avalanche Punch is pretty obvious in its purpose: it gives Gabriel more height. You can do it three to four times in a high jump and still gain slightly more height, but the gain dinimishes each time you do it. Landslide Punch is a finisher - you can only do it once, and it's better reserved for the end. More about it when I discuss finishers, further down. Second aid is, again, Holy Water. You can use it in between attacks to gain a decent height boost or at any time to start moving slightly forward... there's more about it in the finishers-section as well. Holy Water never stops giving you a decent height boost in air, but simply spamming Holy Water doesn't work - you have to use attacks in a varied way to do a good air combo and squeeze out all the height bonuses you can. Third real aid is Cyclone Boots, which finally grant you that double jump you've so longed for. Double jump is pretty neat in this game, with the height boost noteworthy... however, Cyclone Boots also give you Whirwind Flap, the ability to use your second jump through the normal Rising Assault move sequence to get really high in air. It's the highest launcher in the game, so use it whenever you can basically. Unfortunately double jumping doesn't reset the momentum of your air moves, unlike in God of War. If it did, you could jump much higher than what's currently possible. An honorable mention goes to the Silver Daggers, which you can throw about twice in conjunction with Holy Water and gain a little bit of extra height. High jump finishers: After you've gotten the height you want, there still remains the problem of inching a little bit forward to get over the invisible wall you want to cross or just hit the nigh-unreachable platform in front of you. That's where "finishers" to a high jump come in. Landslide Punch is a decent finisher to a high jump once you get it, although it's nearly useless if there are enemies in the area because Gabriel tends to auto-target the enemies instead of focusing on the jump. Guess he hates the monsters so much he can't control himself. Read more on using this move properly in the long jumps section... Holy Water, as mentioned, has strong-anti gravity properties and helps you slowly move forward in air. For example, do Holy Water at the apex of a jump, then an air attack, then another Holy Water. You should get a little boost forward, hopefully enough to reach the next place, and the best thing about this move is that Gabriel is not hindered by auto-targeting. So if there are enemies around, this is pretty much the only option. You can also have Gabriel easily land on top of invisible walls using Holy Water since you can control your forward movement in such small, precise steps. You can also use your second jump (after getting Cyclone Boots) in the middle of a jump, allowing you a superb air control in comparison to the other finishers. Good in some circumstances, although the timing can be tricky since if you try to do it too soon after an attack, you just lose the jump and nothing happens. You can use double jump after for example an air Holy Water toss or the air Area attack. Guillotine is not much of a finisher otherwise, but it has an additional effect near certain types of collision. Let's call this technique the Guillotine Ascension for example. You know when sometimes collision is shaped so that Gabriel stays hovering in air if he falls towards it? That's the kind of collision that is needed. So, if you Guillotine towards it, Gabriel will do the downwards motion and attack while leaning towards the small edge of the collision, being able to stand on it for the duration of the attack even if he would normally fall off instantly. Then you can follow up with a new launcher while still standing on that small edge. It's like starting a new jump, except from higher than before. And you can do this repeatedly at some places too, see Titan's Graveyard end strategy for reference. (c: satvara) To note, sometimes when you land on slippery surface after Guillotine, and then ascend in air again with Whirlwind Flap for example, after some air moves Gabriel will fall down in his ground idle stance. However, this seems to only be a graphical glitch, and you won't get extra jumps from it or anything like that. Some other attack react positively to small edges of collision and angled surface as well, like Landslide Punch. Guillotine remains the most useful one so far, though. And... that might be all there is to know about high jumps in this game. Unfortunately no infinite jump or something like that as of yet, but most walls can be crossed over even with these means... will it be enough? Video demonstration: 1, Gauntlet high jump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSK4gidU7PE 2, Gauntlet + Holy Water high jump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tYbc5yfDs 3. Titan's Graveyard skips (shows Guillotine Ascension and more) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw Changing air attack properties? Just a small mention that the air Direct attack has different properties if you do it while running. This way the attack has a much stronger upwards boost, and you can do it up to four times in a row still gaining height. This is useful to know when you need to start a high jump from a normal jump instead of a launch. You also can't buffer from air Area attack to Direct attack at the start of an air combo, unlike normal. Pretty strange... it remains to be seen if there are other differences. Holy Cross break-outs (c: AKheon) For some miraculous reason, the recovery phase of Holy Cross can mess up other animations, creating break-outs and graphical glitches. It is an easy glitch to do at its most basic: just cast Holy Cross, and examine something while the light is shining from the cross. The glitch effect should automatically happen then. But remember that not all prompt have a real glitch effect to them. List of things that are affected by the glitch... + you can have Ark of Brotherhood chests open without being tied down to them. + same thing with wall switches like in the Sewers. + same thing with ground switches like at Chromatic Observatory device. + same thing with special plot item corpses, like again at Chromatic Observatory. + same thing with collectables like the cylinders at Music Box. + sawing prompts cause Gabriel to move to the right spot, but then nothing happens and the prompt becomes inoperable afterwards. + other unique level-specific prompts may become glitched too. These are listed at level-by-level sections below. List of things not affected... - normal corpse examination just cancels and nothing happens through this glitch. - same with those wheels you use the Stake to open. - and all sorts of wheels and cranks that you have to rotate. - grip points seem immune to real glitching. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fva4LgyrBSk Enemy grab and mount glitching with Holy Cross: At summer 2012 it was found that you can also glitch the enemy mount and grab animations using Holy Cross, although the procedure is slightly different from normal - and far more difficult. Since you can't cancel to a grab from Holy Cross, you have to first let go of Holy Cross as you are casting it, and then frame precisely grab the foe almost instantly afterwards. This is enough to cause the glitch. However, it doesn't work whenever a grab prompt leads to a cutscene, so keep that in mind. Normal enemies' grabs fizzle in a bit unremarkable way. For example, Lycanthropes and Goblins are lifted up in air, like in their normal grab, but with Gabriel loose and physically free to do other things during this time. Unfortunately the grab doesn't finish like this - instead it just cuts off and the enemy is safely set back on ground. There's a list below that lists the effects this glitch has on the grabs of normal enemies... mounts are a different chapter altogether, though, and the remaining paragraphs are devoted to them. So, with a mount. It's clear when you've successfully started the glitch because the grab mini-game begins jarringly from the middle of the animation. Now you have two choices, either fail or win the mini-game. Both have their own outcomes. Winning the mini-game, the camera sets itself behind the mount in a pretty cool way. Unfortunately there's but a moment you have until the mount freezes on its tracks and then you have no choice but to retry from the last checkpoint to regain control of Gabriel. No buttons work, other than the menus... too bad, this camera would've been cool to use in actual gameplay. Losing the mini-game, something highly unexpected happens (Trolls, Warthogs & Wargs). After being thrown off, Gabriel reappears on the foe's back, but... the foe can't be controlled! The foe continues his usual A.I.-driven antics, trying to attack Gabriel, but mostly in vain because Gabriel is too far away on the mount's back to reach. The mount can rarely try to grab Gabriel, despite Gabriel riding it... strange scenarios indeed. Winning or losing this grab doesn't matter: afterwards Gabriel re-appears on the mount's back with sometimes an even stranger pose than before. Nothing seems to make sense any more. Well, you can issue some commands to the mount, mainly what attacks to use (by using the main buttons, but it doesn't always work). These orders actually cancel the monster's own attacks, sometimes looking a bit weird. You can also kill your mount using the prompt for it, but it doesn't work very well. After falling down, the mount instantly appears back up, as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately you don't get exp or Magic from killing your mount over and over, would've been exploitable. If you "kill" a Warg mount during a grab attempt, the grab becomes cancelled and some new effects happen. Cancelling the grab later on, Gabriel just becomes disattached from the mount. The mount is also dazed, vulnerable to being instantly grabbed again. This is an useful variation because otherwise there'd be no way to end this mounting glitch, and you'd always have to retry after messing around with it. Cancelling the grab early on, the same thing happens with Gabriel becoming loose from the mount, but the camera now starts following the mount instead of Gabriel, as if it was the main character! If the mount dies now, the camera sort of normalizes itself to a position close to Gabriel. Almost like a normal camera angle, but closer. Like all camera glitches, it becomes fixed if you start grab mini-games or other scenes activate, etc. If your mount dies during this glitch, Gabriel just falls down to the ground in the pose he was in and remains stuck. In the level Agharta (2-5) you can drop yourself into a chasm while riding a mount, causing the "dying" state to stay on indefinitely, complete with graphical effects obscuring the background and everything remaining monochromatic! This is probably because you normally can't die while riding a beast. Gabriel actually becomes mostly immortal to damage during this time, with only grab damage harming him, and he remains unaffected by death surface too. It's an interesting state, but it won't carry over a checkpoint or leaving a level. Only time will tell if you can do anything useful with it... I wonder if there remains another move with which to glitch grabs, causing for example the glitch of Gremlins getting stuck to Gabriel's side. Video demonstration: 1, "Warg Mount Glitches pt. 1" by AKheon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om7fkqtd4zo 2. more, with the death scene glitch as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2CsM-wub8 3, Troll mount glitches http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Ih9O5RPFU 4, Warthog and Spider mount glitches http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyGHwpg1aY List of Holy Cross grab animation glitches (c: AKheon) Normal Lycanthropes, if grabbed with his glitch, will start hovering in air by themselves for a moment before they land safely and resume their normal behavior. Swamp Troll's finisher QTE can't be glitched, apparently. The grab doesn't begin in the least. Wargs are Mounts and their glitches have been described above. Goblins are the same as Lycanthropes. Trolls also work like Mounts. Giant Spiders are basically mounts, but their glitch effect is a bit unique. Winning the prompt causes Gabriel to become stuck, like with Wargs. Losing the prompt causes Gabriel to become immortal, as if he was safe on top of the mount, although he is actually free to move and hasn't mounted the Spider. Usual effects, like immunity to death collision. Warthogs also work like Mounts. Greater Lycanthropes have a quite stylish glitch effect. The death QTE starts on the enemy's part while Gabriel is free to frolic in the vicinity. The QTE inevitably fails at the final hit, but camera remains glitched indefinitely afterwards. This doesn't seem to work with Gremlins. Swordmasters have numerous grab reactions: two for if you grab them at a wrong time, close range and long range, and then their finishing move grab. Well, you can't do very fancy glitching with Swordmasters regardless. The long range wrong time grab starts but then fizzles out. The short range wrong time grab and finishing grab won't glitch at all, it seems. Witch Childs haven't been tested yet. Ghouls and Vampires are lifted into air by themselves, but then the grabs fizzle out unremarkably. Animated Armors' finishing grab starts, but soon fizzles out. Brauner's finishing QTE can be glitched. The first hits of the grab succeed automatically even without any prompts and with Gabriel free to move during this time as he wishes, but the last hit acts strangely. Brauner gets stuck in a sort of repeated motion while the camera is stuck. You have no choice but to do a normal grab on Brauner to end the glitch to continue. Also, I could've sworn I once managed to glitch Brauner's sword throwing prompt as well with Holy Cross, so that he got hit with the sword with Gabriel free to move... nothing special, I guess. Mandragoras work like other small enemies. Their grab starts but fizzles out in a moment. Deadly Toys' finishing grab doesn't become glitched at all. Olrox's final grab doesn't seem to glitch up. Mechanical Monstrosity II's finishing grab can be glitched. The boss takes some hits, then the grab fizzles and everything is back to normal... with the exception of the glitched camera. Vampire Lord's mid-fight grab is affected by the glitch. Basically, it works until a few hits in, then it fizzles out, and the Vampire Lord goes back to being stunned. Scarecrows' final grab can be glitched. It starts mid-way through without Gabriel participating. Then it fizzles out and the Scarecrow goes back to being normally stunned. Headless Burrowers haven't been tested yet. The Silver Knight's first phase grab glitches up. At first things work out like normal, but at the part where you mash a button, the Knight gets stuck in a silly looking pose. The camera is stuck during this time as well. Of course, since you normally don't have Light Magic during this part, if you want to see this variation you need to use cheats. The Silver Knight's second phase grab also glitches up. The grab goes all the way through automatically, without you having to press anything in the process. Pretty neat. Creeping Coffin's grab (non-coffin) fizzles out almost immediately, and is not a very interesting sight. Grabbing while it's inside the coffin produces more interesting results, as the mini-game sort of starts for a moment, but then it fizzles out too. Zombies work like Lycanthropes and other small enemies. The Gravedigger's finishing grab glitches up. The grab begins like normal until the second-to-last hit, and then it fizzles out. It's pretty unique to see Gravedigger stand stunned in the middle of the arena instead of the walls like normally, but grabbing him here just transports him and Gabriel to the edges like usual. So it doesn't seem to cause additional glitches. Necromancer grab doesn't seem to glitch up? Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's compilation vid of many of the grabs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtyDQFD_Gs Passing through cutscene triggers (c: findlestick) Apparently, doing Shoulder Charge from a certain distance to a cutscene trigger can make Gabriel go past that trigger without it activating. At this date we have only gotten it to work at some cutscenes. And at that, only the ones that you can normally skip by selecting the option to do so in the menu. But it takes nearly as long to charge the Shoulder Charge & activate it, as it does to skip it normally. Recently findlestick has managed to stop enemies from spawning at the start of Veros Woods by doing a Shoulder Charge through their "appearance triggers". Finding where these triggers are, involves listening to the PS3's loading sounds as Gabriel moves towards areas where you know enemies will spawn. When you know the location of the trigger, Shoulder Charge through it to get this result (at least at Veros Woods). Proper testing hasn't yet been done at other parts of the game, or at other triggers that load other data. Glitching up cutscenes with Dark Crystal: Using Dark Crystal before cutscenes has a few interesting effects. If used before a cinematic, skippable cutscene, like most story-related cutscenes in the game, the pre-rendered Dark Crystal summoning video (FMV) starts during the cutscene. After it ends, the cyclone effect starts while the scene plays on, looking pretty funny. Some other unique, strange effects may also happen, like in Chapter 1-1, where a post-scene mini-game begins early during the scene itself. Having the Crystal summoning FMV appear during a cinematic scene also makes the cinematic scene unskippable - going to menu reveals that the option to skip video is gone, instead the normal menu options are there, like retrying from checkpoint and such. However, it seems that even if you retry suddenly in this circumstance (never intended by the game), not much interesting stuff occurs. A common drawback to this trick is that afterwards Gabriel will be frozen in one spot. You can't move him or do anything with him, and this state won't end even if an enemy attacks him. You always have to retry to continue, sadly. Another type of cutscene is a subtler scene that you can't skip through the menu. These can be glitched up with Dark Crystal as well. If you're trying to break the Dark Crystal as the scene is starting, the breaking is interrupted and Gabriel is suddenly free to move during the scene. If you keep holding the sub-weapon button down for longer, the scene itself cancels in a way. (c: satvara) For now the use of this glitch remains with timed cutscenes, since those are the only type of cutscenes you can slip a Dark Crystal breaking to coincide with. If we could have Gabriel move while he is breaking a Dark Crystal, well, that would be a bit different story. Also, if we could cause delayed damage to enemies, we could break a Crystal right as a boss is damaged enough to have some cutscene start... unfortunately Light Fairies are not cut out for that kind of thing, as unreliable as they are. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid of glitching up cinematic cutscenes in the first levels of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLDw6fhUgc Weapons & Magic: General info Unlike what you'd expect after playing other games of this type, Dante's Inferno, God of War, Devil May Cry, you name it, your magic cauges - the most comparable thing to a superpowered special mode in this game - do not deplete by themselves while they're on. They only deplete if... - you attack and the attack hits anything - you do a special attack powered by Magic (like Holy Jump) - you heal poisoning using Light Magic The difference between Light and Shadow is pretty clear. Light Magic allows you to heal and protect yourself and do some crowd control. Light Magic is also economic, as its specials don't drain that much magic. Shadow Magic on the other hand gives you extra damage (and sometimes speed) at any cost. Its specials can be surprisingly Magic draining, but at least flashy. Your normal attacks also become unblockable and cause easier stuns. With most Magic specials, like Holy Cross, you can turn the Magic-mode off right as the move starts, allowing you to do the special without any Magic-mode active. However, this doesn't stop the consumption of Magic by the special move, and you actually lose any Magic-specific benefits for the move, like gaining life with Light Magic. You also might be able to switch from Light to Shadow, or the other way around, as the move starts, if you hadn't purchased the counterpart Magic already. Should be tested. � A. General Moves Nothing yet...! B.Combat Cross After getting the Spiked Chain upgrade, Gabriel can mount ridable enemies. You may try it out even in the early levels like Hunting Path. If you interrupt the first hit of Chain Barrier with sub-item use or blocking, your next chain attack has a small graphical glitch in it. The chain basically appears at a strange spot first before the actual attack starts, nothing big. Guillotine is an air move that brings Gabriel down pretty quickly in a swirling motion. Upon contact with ground, Gabriel does the actual attack, slamming the chain down with all his might. The actual attack also activates if Gabriel hits even the slightest amount of collision on the way, temporarily allowing him to stand on teeny bits of collision where he normally can't stand, or sometimes a certain type of angled surface. It can be used to climb walls occasionally, read more about in the Guillotine Ascension section at high jumps. Also, getting hit by death collision (like in pits) at a certain point of Guillotine animation, Gabriel does a slightly glitchy somersault falling down. Gabriel looks like he leaves ground during Chain Barrier finisher, but he actually does not. His collision remains on ground level and only the character model does the leap. C. Light Magic Light Flash is a surprisingly useful move. Basically, if you do a precise counter with Light Magic active, there's this slo-mo light flash and a little of your Light Magic drains away. Enemies nearby can become stunned and stationary, and best of all, the next physical attack you do to a stunned enemy does multiplied damage. You can deal up to 800 dmg in an instant with a charged Tremor Punch... and 1000 dmg with Ultimate Shadow! And 2000 dmg with Dark Crystal!!! Quite useful. Unfortunately not all enemies become stunned by Light Flash, like Warthogs. Not all attacks do multiple damage and end the stunned state. For example Holy Cross does its normal damage and the enemies' stun continues. Holy Cross is an attack during which you are stationary and you shoot an ever- widening beam of light. At its maximum reach the arc of the beam is almost 180 degrees, demolishing pretty much everything in front of the main character. For some reason the move has a glitchy hidden effect too: most R1-animations become interrupted or otherwise glitched by Holy Cross' recovery phase. For example the switches at sewers become pulled without Gabriel physically touching them, and you actually save seconds this way. Mounts can also be glitched. There's an own section for the glitch somewhere above... If Gabriel falls down a cliff in the middle of Holy Cross, the light effect of the attack remains at the top while Gabriel himself goes down. Holy Jump not only affects normal Double Jump but also Upwards Guillotine and Whirlwind Flap. Keep that in mind when doing a combo as this move costs a hefty amount of Magic each time... Ultimate Light is a very high priority attack, so high priority that it cancels out almost every other ground attack in the game. It even cancels Dark Crystal charging animation, allowing you to do a pretty wicked camera glitch with it. There's more about it below. You can also cancel out of damage taking animations with Ultimate Light, and hover over swamp surface with it. A move with many uses... If you move into death collision like Music Box fire traps in Ultimate Light- mode, the slow, dramatic death scene of Gabriel flying backwards does not occur. Instead, gameplay very quickly resumes from where the game would've left off had the scene been played. If you keep tapping Light Magic on and off rapidly after getting Ultimate Light, the attack too flickers on and off at a rapid pace, looking (not to mention, sounding) strange. D. Shadow Magic Shadow Flames is the Shadow equivalent of Holy Cross. It deals more damage while having a much more narrow stream, so it is harder to hit enemies with it. You also can't glitch stuff with it (as far as we know) so it is automatically worse in any case! If you cast Exploding Quake and run out of Shadow Magic while the multiple small explosions shake the ground, the magic activation sound and the fiery graphical effect around Gabriel will go on and off repeatedly, as if the ongoing attack forced the Shadow-mode to stay on despite you have no magic left. Ultimate Shadow is the Shadow equivalent to Ultimate Light... but in effect quite a different type of move. Just holding the magic-button down causes Gabriel to enter a sort of stance where he slowly flails his chain in a quite devilish looking way. This stance is very high priority and cuts off almost every other attack in its wake. For some reason near some switches and other examinable objects the speed of the Ultimate Shadow stance doubles. While it's a similar move than Shoulder Charge, Ultimate Shadow doesn't work the same way when done into a chasm. The game does its best to prevent Gabriel from falling down, and progressing beyond where the floor ends seems impossible. Using Ultimate Shadows near triggers where a map switches to another, Gabriel will eventually be left to the wrong side of the trigger - meaning he is technically out of bounds. In some maps there is no collision past the trigger, meaning you can go literally out of bounds, but in some maps it just looks weird but you can't do anything with it. (c: findlestick) E. Silver Daggers Your basic projectile attack in this game that you get in Chapter 1-1. Extra effective against Lycanthropes and some other small enemies, like Gremlins. You can do a charged version that acts as a shockwave that hits many enemies at once at the price of 5 daggers. With Shadow Magic on, the dagger projectile turns into Explosive Dagger. It does more damage, but won't gain an area effect or anything like that. F. Dark Crystals Dark Crystal is a small-scale weapon of mass destruction you get from Chapter 2-7. Once used, it breaks, and a cutscene shows a horrific creature being summoned. Then a cyclone wreaks havoc on Gabriel's surroundings, doing massive damage to all enemies on the screen. The cinematic close-up camera can be kept with you using a glitch. Start charging the Dark Crystal but have Ultimate Light/Shadow interrupt it right as the zoom-in begins. Gabriel should break out of the Crystal animation, and in turn the nauseating cinematic camera will stay on indefinitely! This makes normal playing look quite interesting... However, the camera fixes itself at QTE's and pre-rendered cutscenes, among other things, so playing the entire game through in this camera mode is not possible. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgmbXveaNSk Utilizing Dark Crystals before a cutscene has a few interesting effects. Those were documented already, above... G. Fairies You get Fairies from Chapter 3-1. They're in their normal form a tool of distraction: a Fairy you send out to the field will distract an enemy for a period of time, at the cost of its life. Light Fairies are a damaging tool instead, hitting enemies twice before self- destructing for a pretty good damage. They drain a lot of Light Magic each time when cast, regardless of if they hit anything or just promptly return to Gabriel's pocket. They're normally fairly reliable, but if the enemy you'd like them to hit is already damaged or near death, they become nearly useless. They just won't target a foe like that. They also won't target some boss enemies. Sometimes Light Fairies may self-destruct without hitting a target. This especially happens if a large number of Light Fairies is targeting a single foe. If you send a Light Fairy against a possible but invulnerable target, they just keep flying through it repeatedly. Possible for example if an enemy glitches up and becomes immortal. H. Holy Water Flasks Holy Water is acquired from Chapter 5-5. It's a crowd control projectile that is extremely damaging against the undead. It is also well documented as a tool in high jumping, but you can read all about it in the high jumps section above. When cast with Light Magic active, Gabriel throws the Holy Water towards his feet instead and you also get a free protective shield around Gabriel that lasts for about 15 seconds. This Divine Shield eats up normal attacks until it wears out, and it even protects against unblockable attacks. Keeping it active can allow you to skip some otherwise mandatory fights in the game. For example, all those times where there's a crank you need to turn but enemies keep hassling you. Just cast Divine Shield and with luck you can turn the crank before the enemies get a hit in. You may've expected this, but Divine Shield does not protect you from death collision like chasms and Music Box traps. I. Dark Gauntlet It's a gauntlet-type weapon that you get at the end of Chapter 2. Slow but powerful attacks that you can charge to make even more powerful are the name of the game. There's also a Shadow-version of all Dark Gauntlet moves - they are quite powerful, but costly, and can't be further charged. Aside the use in high jumping, Avalanche Punch can allow Gabriel to rarely breach through some walls in the game. Should find more spots where it is doable... Doing a Shoulder Charge through some cutscene triggers makes Gabriel go through the trigger undected. Thus skipping the cutscene, however it either doesn't work at all cutscenes, or the difficulty varies with each location. There's more info about this above in the general tricks. J. Cyclone Boots Boots that give you some new powers, including Sprinting ability. You get them from Chapter 3-2. During a Sprint, Gabriel takes about 6 long steps at a much higher pace than normal. The additional speed carries over to your jumps, but to not much else. You also get a few extra attack to your disposal during a Sprint, after you've purchased them of course. Sprint may suddenly die down if you run over uneven floor collision, which can be a bother. It also dies down if you activate Magics or try to slow down in any way. There's a glitch involving Sprint. Sometimes after a Shoulder Charge your Sprints become liable to restart if you ram into a wall. This allows you to run against walls a bit differently than normal, with Sprint restarting up to several times a second. So far it's not helped in breaching walls at all, though. But it is also useful wheneven you have to run on top of some uneven collision that would normally shut down your Sprint very easily. Occasionally the visual effect of Sprint can become stuck on Gabriel. This seems to happen if you interrupt Sprint at a certain frame by examining something, for example. K. Seraph Shoulders A relic that gives Gabriel a variety of air-related powers, such as double jump. You finally get this useful tool at Chapter 8-4. Backwards double jumping doesn't appear to have a speed cap, unlike forward or sideways jumping. So if you do a backwards double jump and steer exactly towards Gabriel's back through the entire jump, you'll see your speed increase quite rapidly towards the end, before hitting the ground. The effect is the greater the longer you have Gabriel fall down. If you do jumps or launches at places with very low ceiling, Gabriel may drop down partially inside ground as he falls. This state fixes itself quite quickly if you just start moving or doing attacks. About general mechanisms Cranks: It seems on occasion many people have managed to start turning rotating cranks without them even having the handle intact. Video demonstration: 1, ronnielain's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfXrc_W9P8 Rarely it seems you can get similar kind of strange momentum boost after turning the crank with enemies around as in the "Assisted Long Jump". Chasms and death collision: There's a mechanism that changes the end of your air attacks depending on how close to the ground you are. For example, doing first Direct air attack at normal jumping height has Gabriel enter an elegant landing animation straight from it. Doing it higher has him enter a generic pose for the longer fall. But over a bottomless pit, Gabriel is sent plummeting down to his death so suddenly it looks like a glitch. This mechanism doesn't really limit your options, but it does force you to be more careful at times, especially using the exemplary first air Direct attack anywhere near a pit. The typical death slo-mo before respawning is omitted if you hit death collision during some attacks. Nothing special, I guess. It's fairly common for Gabriel to fall through death collision for a reason or another. Can happen if you fall off those spider's web balancing threads, or possibly even by doing attacks at a correct time. Grapple points: Sometimes you can keep a bit of some moves' momentum as you take hold of a grapple point. A good example is the Somersault. By starting a Somersault and latching onto the grapple point, Gabriel's extra momentum can whisk him aside, even through nearby walls at first, until the grapple's normal trajectory takes hold. For now there's not much use for this fact. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid (from 01:17 on): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YSIfxsWUY Mounts: You can glitch up mounting enemies using, you guessed it, Holy Cross. There's more about it in the above sections. In rare circumstances you can breach a wall after landing down from a mount. See Chapter 2-4 for a sequence break that uses this trick. We still don't have all the details for this trick, it should be tested further. � If Warthog demounts are done on sloped collision, Gabriel can momentarily stand in air at its completion. This lets you start a jump from higher up than you normally should. See Chapter 5-1 for a minor sequence break that uses this trick. Swamps: If jumping is not an option for some reason, you can also do Ultimate Light and that way glide over the surface of the swamp as long as you have Magic with no problems. You can easily go out of bounds in Titan Graveyard doing this as you can move much further in swamp without dying than the developers ever anticipated! After you get double jump, you can cause a slight glitch by hitting swamp (both normal and poisonous) right as you do your second jump: Gabriel flies through the air in his slowly shuffling mudwalk in a not too graceful way. If it was poison fog you did this trick with, the game considers him to be choking until he lands on solid ground. Spider web: At some levels there are threads of spider web strung out across chasms, and you can use them to get across... much like balancing beams. Walking off them at a small angle can cause Gabriel to fall down to his death, but still in the balancing pose. The thread also falls at his pace because it appears it is programmed to remain on Gabriel's feet's height when he is balancing on top of it. Sometimes falling on spider's web Gabriel falls through the death collision into nothingness. But this can happen in other circumstances too, it's not a too rare occurence. The same glitch effect of double jumping right as you touch the swamp surface applies here: Gabriel does a small jump in the balancing beam pose. You can't do much this trick. Holding R2 in air does nothing, and falling into a chasm while in the pose does nothing. You can Ultimate Light over these Webs to get past them quicker. Double jumping is also an option, but not always, as there is generally too much invisible collision around spider webs. Enemy glitches: Sometimes enemies can get some A.I. flaw and get stuck somewhere. Basic things like that. Holy Cross breakouts are the biggest single glitch you can do with enemies, but those were already covered far above. If you launch an enemy against a crooked wall, they can get stuck falling against it forever. For example, Small Trolls at Chapter 4-1, if you Air Grab them and fling them towards a wall this way. Sometimes an enemy can become immortal. You drain all its HP, but it still doesn't die. All subsequent hits stop making any damage and there's not much about you can do the foe in this case. 3. Level-by-levels - Sequence break: skipping a part of the level - Speedrun strategy: fastest possible tactics for a given situation - Battle exploit: a trick that makes a fight cheaper - Collision flaw: something wrong with the collisions of the game - Wasted potential: a cool idea that doesn't work out - Mystery: an intriguing, yet unexplained occurence - Untested: something awaiting to be tested - Other: doesn't go into any category above Note: If a skip says (full power) after it, it means that it requires gear that you only get later on in the game, and so the skip can only be done in replay (or New Game+) mode. However, the later in the game we go, the more the line blurs between having full powers or not. Some skips marked (full power) may actually be doable in New Game conditions as well. Note 2: out of curiosity and fun, the flavor texts that you see in the Pause- menu during the levels were listed as well, in chronological order. 1-1: Besieged Village "Gabriel fought the horde of Lycanthropes in the hope of freeing the small village from the siege." Other (full power): if you go out of bounds here and fall to the platform beneath the level, you can see a strange glowing "crank" or "ledge" hovering in the air. You can grab hold of its side, but it serves no foreseeable purpose. Going out of bounds, you basically leave the villagers to fend off against the Lycanthropes for themselves. Fortunately they're strong enough to win this fight without you! If they do win while you're falling OOB, everything returns normal when the next cutscene of Great Warg kicks in. Other / Wasted potential (full power): if you use Dark Crystal right before the scene of Great Warg appearing, the scene glitches up. The mini-game that starts the boss fight occurs inside the cinematic cutscene, and eventually you see two Wargs during the cutscene! If you press buttons, you may actually warp to the final cutscene of the fight directly... unfortunately doing this, Gabriel becomes frozen afterwards, so you can't save time with it. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLDw6fhUgc "The Great Warg destroyed the wooden fence as if it was made of paper, and leapt onto Gabriel for the kill." Wasted potential: it seems that the Warg fight finale cutscene (before you use stake) won't begin while the Dark Crystal cutscene is starting. This prevents potential glitchy effects. Wasted potential (full power): the prompt of the stake can't be glitched with Holy Cross? Everything seems to work as normal even if you try it. 1-2: Hunting Path "As they raced through the forest, Gabriel and his mysterious companion heard the baying of the Wargs chasing them." "Gabriel fell from the horse. He would have to hold his ground until his mysterious friend returned." Random: it's the only level where the horse mount is used. Speed strategy: it's fastest to just drop off your horse as quickly as possible. If you spam a button during the QTE prompt, you fail even quicker than if you'd just wait it out. You need to fall two times and fight two fights, after which the level is over. Other: if you use a Dark Crystal as a fight ends and a cutscene starts, afterwards Gabriel is not transported back on horse but instead stays in the forest clearing completely frozen up. You have to retry to continue. If you this before the cutscene that ends the level, you will not finish the level after the scenes. Instead, a glitched pause- or level-finish menu comes up that has no text in it! If you go to the menu now, things fix up, and you'll see that all along Gabriel was just frozen in the forest clearing. And you have to retry again. Video demonstration: 1, see the above vid 1-3: The Dead Bog "Mosquitos and insects buzzed everywhere in the damp ground of the Dead Bog." "Raising their weapons, some Goblins leapt from their hidouts to ambush Gabriel for trespassing on their land." Sequence break (full power): skipping first Goblins fight Simply jump over the invisible wall separating you from the swampy paths ahead you, or... well, more literally *behind* you because that's how the camera works in this fight. You need to start the jump towards the wall nearest to the camera. The wall is quite low and shouldn't be a hassle to cross even without using Holy Water. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBDX1Yw27g Sequence break (full power): you can skip the cutscene at the small island by doing a Shoulder Charge long jump over it, from on top of the collision that you end up on if you are doing the above-mentioned skip. "The mud was slowly swallowing Gabriel, but the quicksand was not the only problem facing him here..." Sequence break (full power): skipping the tree fight You normally have to uproot a tree with the goblin grenades to progress. But if you have full power, you may also just high jump over the high (!) invisible wall in front of the tree. You need to take everything out of your jump for it to work. However, it takes nearly as long to get over it than it does to do this section normally. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8 Sequence break (full power): skipping Swamp Troll This boss fight can be skipped with full power. Instead of climbing inside the mausoleum, do a high jump to the roof of the mausoleum near from where you climb inside. Now you can get to the Swamp Troll boss arena early, with no boss present. Then you have to do another high jump to get over the invisible wall separating you from the next path - you know, where the Grip Point would appear after beating the boss. (c: satvara) Findlestick has another route for this area. You start the high jump from in front of the mausoleum. This way you retain a better camera angle, and are able to coordinate a Shoulder Charge long jump towards the next area. You end up on the path before the final platforming sequence of the level. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-Vr3gLIsw 2, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ES3ga3rvP0 "The lonely steps of Gabriel echoed in the empty mausoleum." Wasted potential (full power): you always have to pick up Hook Tip, even if you have it on replay, to activate the Grip Point at the window. "The large Swamp Troll ripped up a stone statue and tried to smash Gabriel with it." Sequence break (full power): skipping Swamp Troll You can also skip this boss after having started the fight, again jumping over the exit wall. But it is more of a hassle now with the Troll doing his trollsome things in the vicinity. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqFVL7VHcA "A large chasm separated Gabriel from the forest Guardian's temple." Speed strategy (full power): you can just double jump over the fence after the troll fight. No need to use the Grip Point. Speed strategy (full power): the last platforming section is laden with invisible walls, but it is still possible do to a nice shortcut with double jump at where you first have to start climbing down. There's a wide invisible wall that you have to curve around with your jumps. If all should work out, you land on collision you're normally not supposed to reach that's above the climbing walls below. From there you can Sprint double jump directly past the swinging Grip Point and get to the level finale in no time. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid (at the second half of this vid) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-Vr3gLIsw 1-4: Pan's Forest "The peaceful and magical forest surrounded Gabriel with a mantle of lush vegetation and watchful eyes." Wasted potential: you can partially break out of examining the runes by using the Holy Cross glitch, which saves some seconds per examination, perhaps. But you don't really need to do this because the rune order for the green barrier is always the same, and you can just memorize it and never bother with the runes at all after the first time. Wasted potential: there's the Ark of Brotherhood here, which you could get to early using the Gauntlet high jump... if only there wasn't a big invisible wall on the way. The wall only goes away after you get Wings. "This was a sacred place. A place that would be lost to mankind before long." Other: It's somehow possible to glitch the fairy cutscene after having completed the puzzle. It doesn't seem to be any harder than going to the Pause- menu at a wrong time: the fairy suddenly flies away to a strange direction, never to be seen again, and you get stuck in the scene that never resolved properly. Try at your own risk. Video demonstration: 1, TheNoSkill's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6gEVSIEDfA Other: It's possible to get out-of-bounds with a simple double jump! However...this is useless since it's done after you've solved the puzzle. Near the base of the spiralling stairs... 1, mish9volt's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPEBxvHzDk "Before him was his beloved Marie and a test that would require all of his wits, if he was to save her." 1-5: Oblivion Lake "A cold, chill wind blowed through Gabriel's heart as he entered Oblivion Lake." Wasted potential: you can high jump out of bounds at the start of the level, but this probably can't be used for anything. "The Ice Titan tried to crush Gabriel under its massive fists." Speed strat (full power): you can break a Dark Crystal to heavily damage the Ice Titan. It seems to reduce hit points in all of the Titan's runes to minimum, so that only one hit will destroy them after that. "Gabriel grasped onto the slippery surface of the Ice Titan for dear life." 2-1: Enchanted Forest "And so it begins, he delved towards the remains of an ancient civilization, as old as the forest itself." Other: this level has a few noteworthy things different in it during New Game+. The entire Light Medallion tutorial and later on, the part where you have to pick up the Focus scroll and fight a Warg are skipped. Sequence break (full power): Cliff Skip You can do a jump that ends with some Holy Water lugging to conveniently land on top of the invisible wall in front of you, then do a sprint jump to some strange floor in the sky right up ahead. From there it's very easy to just get to the next checkpoint and skip all the climbing here. (c: satvara) Another way is that you can do a basic gauntlet high jump over the wall to the left as near as the camera as you can. You should land on some floor. From there, the cliffside is sprinkled with hazardous collision you can use to jump your way blindly until you get past the death collision to the next area. Or, find a clear spot you can use to do a sprint jump to get through with a higher chance of success. Takes more effort that the above strategy, but should be faster in a speedrun if done optimally, and it costs no Holy Water to do. (c: AKheon) You can double jump past the death collision while falling down the cliffs. This method might be overall the fastest, but some air for speculation remains. (c: findlestick) Another version is to do a Shoulder Charge long jump from on top of the invisible wall mentioned in version 1 (above) towards a large tree that's visible in the background. There is a large area of collision that you can stand on located there. From there do another Shoulder Charge long jump in a North/Westerly direction, followed by your double jump. If done correctly, Gabriel will end up at the Neutral orb fountain. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Txt7lGofOY 2, AKheon's vid of the alternative strategy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RiQD2FLOaQ 3, findlestick's vid of his strategy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6dgaYqGkoQ 4, findle's Charged Jump method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw34Fe1OZgE On normal play (without all powers) there exists some time savers as well. After jumping down to the first cliff below and hanging onto its ledge, you can, instead of rappelling down, drop down the length needed to find the next grapple point. In some cases it's even possible to grap the next grapple point during the fall itself. "Gabriel had the Light Gem Medallion to aid him on his quest." "A few Goblins rushed Gabriel, unaware of his quest." Speed strategy (full power): on the left path, there's some climbing which you can speed up using double jump. But going this way is not the optimal thing to do in a speedrun anyway... Other (full power): on the right path, there's a tree you can knock over. The animation of knocking the tree over can be escaped using the Holy Cross glitch... Actually, the tree doesn't even become knocked over this way, it just starts shaking ominously! The invisible walls will not clear from the way, and you need double jump to reach the grapple point and get across. The prompt of the tree itself becomes unuseable afterwards. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid (at about 00:39) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YSIfxsWUY "Goblins and Wolves wouldn't stop him, once he had mastered the art of Focus." Sequence break (full power): skipping Goblin Gate fight You can do the end of the level out of bounds, skipping the Goblin fight where you have to blow up the gate. This is done by doing a high jump near the grapple point at the window where you'd normally jump through. To get up to the ledge via the grapple, you need to move Gabriel to just below the circular window. From there make Gabriel push away from the wall and instantly press jump and lean controller diaginally up/right. Then a minor high jump will get you up to a ledge on the top of the building. Jump down (while staying out-of- bounds) and walk along some narrrow collision to the right of the battle arena. When you reach a statue at the far end, do a sprint/double jump across a gap to end up at the final area. Luckily, even tho you are out-of-bounds the game lets Gabriel walk inbounds just enough to jump up to the area where the final grapple is. Activate the grapple to end up at the final trigger. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHmqaDmI1s Sequence break: jump up to the tree At the very end of the level, you need to jump inside a large tree trunk. You normally need to take a small detour around and grapple to it, but you can also slowly but steadily jump your way up using the angled surface to the side of the tree. Yes, this is a speed strategy that works even on New Game. Of course, jumping up to the trunk becomes trivial with full power. Video demonstration: 1, logitechSDAZ's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tKUIyW4MU 2-2: Underground Caves "There was the strong possibility of getting lost inside these treacherous caves or much worse..." Wasted potential (full power): you can jump over the wall in the very first room, but unfortunately you can't walk on top of the ceiling of the tunnel leading out of there. Or most other ceiling per se. If you could, you could skip the Spider fight and maybe other stuff too. Maybe in a TAS, since there seem to be some very small collision patches around that you could use to navigate... but probably not in normal running. Wasted potential: the trigger that starts the Spider fight is massive, and even attempting to go by the roof will activate it. Collision and other issues make it very unlikely that you could go around it like this. Speed strategy (full power): you can skip the small bit of climbing before Spider fight with double jump. Well... you can skip most small climbing bits with double jump all around the level. "Spiders were not the only inhabitants of the caves: Goblins and Lycanthropes roamed its tunnels, too." Speed strategy: if you have Holy Cross, you can use it to break out of the key collecting animations, saving little time each time. Sequence break (full power): skipping getting the keys First get to the overlook where you can see the door where to insert the two keys. Then you need to do a high jump to hit a small piece of collision up on the wall. Satvara's positioning makes it pretty easy: do a normal double jump in front of the small breakable urn. At the top, do Landslide Punch once, and follow it up with two repeats of Air Direct Attack and Holy Water. Remember to aim towards somewhat right. You should land on the small collision... and from there, Sprint Jump to get past the door. An alternate way of getting to behind the door, is to do a Shoulder Charge long jump from on top of the - above mentioned - first collision. Do the long jump deep towards the final tunnel's direction, while leaning your controller slightly left. Then use your second jump to end up standing on out-of-bounds collision directly right of the tunnel, from there you can hit the trigger that brings you in-bounds. Behind the door, the difficult part begins. The camera might not follow you behind the key door and the ceiling of the tunnel is slippery and hard to cross. If you get near the trigger that activates the Spiked Chain-upgrade cutscene, you teleport back inside the tunnel. A good thing for some, for this ends the ordeal on the slippery roof, but for the fastest results, you're supposed to use your jumping artistry to go all the way to the end of the level, where you can activate the grapple point from outside bounds and thus reach the exit. This trick as a whole was again brought to you by satvara. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid (v2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3onUN4HLAM4 Other: you can Holy Cross break out of the key inserting animation. It's not very meaningful, Gabriel just stands still while the key is inserted. "Gandolfi's artifacts were well hidden and could be found only by the bravest warriors." 2-3: Labyrinth Entrance "Another obstacle stood in his way: a large reinforced door! Gabriel would have to use the strength of his enemies to tear it down." Wasted potential (full power): The walls are too high to skip the gate breaking at the start of the level. You can even high jump on top of the strange thorn structure to the left of the gate at the start of the level, but the walls around are still too high to get across! Sequence break (full power): Once you've mounted your warthog and smashed through the door, turn right and while keeping the hog as close to the wall as possible, line up Gabriel approximately where the dead Brotherhood fellow is. Kill your mount and start spamming (quick) roll towards a rock that is next to the dead body. If done correctly, Gabriel will breach the wall and you can then skip to the end of the level (as described just below)... Video demonstration: 1, findle's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chiWM9bw1Es&t=2m43s Speed strategy (full power): you can skip small climbing bits through the level using double jump. "The Waterfalls of Agharta hid a magnificent labyrinth of ruins perfect for a deadly ambush." Sequence break: skipping later half of the level You can high jump out of bounds after having grappled up the gate, right before the balancing beam section. Usually you can't do much out of bounds, but this level is an exception because you can jump back up from there! Try to find a sort of hovering circle with waterfalls all around it through the nothingness, that's the end level, and go around to the side of it where you don't activate the battle trigger when trying to high jump up. Then, do an annoyingly precise high jump up to the platform's edge. Then, there's still one more invisible wall to get over (pretty high by the looks of it) before you're finally clear. You can use Guillotine ascension to help overcome the last wall, and after getting past that, the level is practically over. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6o6KsDIAw Other (full power): there's an alternative way to go out of bounds here at the balancing beam section. Face the camera in front of the first beam, then do a double jump that does a wide arc to the left, aiming towards the platform you end up at after the climbing section. If you're precise enough, you avoid death collision and fall to the edge of the platform, still in OOB, without having used any Holy Water. Too bad the camera is worse doing it this way than if you used a high jump to go OoB. "Some Lycanthropes tried to stop Gabriel from using the door mechanism." Speed strategy: you can actually avoid fighting the Lycanthropes at the gate by using Divine Shield. This strategy takes a little bit of luck since the Shield has time to wear off before you've rotated the entire wheel. This strategy IS possible without the Shield too, but good luck trying to manipulate it to happen! Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbDNIxMJNLo "The City of Agharta lies beyond, yet a fight to the death also beckons." Battle exploit: fight the last fight from safety Basically, right as you step inside the battle arena where the crank is, an invisible wall forms behind you. If you're quick, you can jump back after stepping in to get behind the invisible wall after it forms. You can easily win this fight from there. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSN7oghnBqQ Speed strategy (full power): you can mostly skip the last fight by again using Divine Shield for the crank turning. You should thin out the Goblin numbers before attempting this, I think. 2-4: Waterfalls of Agharta "Gabriel had to find a way back to the upper levels of the city, but enemies approached from all sides." Sequence break (full power): skip first Spider fight and more Before entering the first Spider fight arena, stop. You have to high jump over the invisible wall to the back and right. Use the nearby statue for some extra height by Stomping on it and making another two jumps. Aim even more to the right to hit the correct spot and then finish the high jump with Landslide Punch. You end up on top of a thin stretch of slippery collision, and your next goal is to land back on ground level still outside bounds. Slide to the far right of the collision, then as you start falling down, make a jump back towards the platform you started from. There's not much floor for you to stand on there, so be careful. Anyway, from here you have to double backwards jump towards a - yet unseen - corridor (in the background). Aim somewhat towards the corridor's beginning to reduce the length of the jump. And... now you will start hating this skip, because if you fail this jump after aiming enough to the right, the game will respawn you back to the fight arena and start the Spider fight, ruining all your progress. The corridor you've just reached is actually one of the corridors that is located to the right of the health fountain (the fountain that's located just after the Troll fight, later on in the level). Now you have to double jump on top of the corridor and hit a patch of normal collision at a certain part of the left side of the ceiling to do more jumps again. Since Gabriel is now on top of one of the two corridors that are located beyond the Troll fight (and which are not too far away from each other, and located nearly parallel to each other), it's just a matter of doing a double backwards jump towards the left of screen towards that other corridor (aim your jump just left of a waterwall, and try to land directly on some thin tree roots you see hanging in mid air that are located to the left of the waterfall). Note that there is a waterfall in your way (between the parallel corridors), but the double backwards jump you just did should get you more-or-less on top of collision that surrounds the waterfall (it's large & clearly visible). From there you can walk on the collision surrounding the waterfall, so double jump towards the exit of the second coriddor, and hit a loading trigger there while out-of-bounds. Then restart to bring Gabriel back in-bounds again, but he'll now be located on the other side of the final corridor. (c: satvara) 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DpKi__QzPk "A giant Spider, attracted by the scent of human flesh, attacked Gabriel on the platform." Speed strategy (full power): some climbing can be skipped using double jump. Speed strategy (full power): you can use Divine Shield to not have to bother with the enemies while pulling down the statue. "A new ambush, and yet fortune shone when uncalled for. The Cave Troll could prove useful." Sequence break: skipping the fight against Trolls Using Assisted Long Jump, you can reach the other side of the chasm where you're supposed to go quite loftily even without full power. Basically, jump into the chasm just as an enemy takes a swipe at you near where you're supposed to go, slightly to the right of the breakable rock for example. Eventually the enemy's strike is glitched, and jumping at that moment will give Gabriel a great momentum boost that throws him to the other side when he is hit. Another tactic that requires full powers is also possible. You can do a Shoulder Charge long jump to reach the other side extremely quickly. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid of first method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_byZXKgM13A 2, findlestick's vid of second method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3nShqwAGA "Another pack of Lycanthropes ambushed Gabriel when he reached the other side of the tunnel." Sequence break (full power): mid-level skip If you fight the Spider fight and platform onward for a decent length, you find a rappel point. Latch onto it, and jump off it, making a high jump to the left. Get over the invisible wall, so that you fall on the corridor there but out of bounds. From there do a long jump towards the back to reach further on in the level. This skips at least two fights and some navigation. (c: satvara) 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_qK9QgUXs Skip (full power): later on in the level there is a large chasm with a rappel point in the distance while some lycanthropes are harassing Gabriel. You can do a small high jump towards the invisible wall to the back and latch onto the distant rappel point from here. Saves some time running around the cliff. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, see the vid above Sequence break (full power): second Spider fight skip Do a sprint long jump towards the fighting arena. Before landing on ground, start gaining more height by lobbing Holy Water and doing other high jump antics. With enough height, you'll land on the invisible wall in front of the bridge that is supposed to collapse when the Spider steps on it. From there continue jumping onwards, and you'll get past this section without having to fight at all. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DpKi__QzPk "With the bridge destroyed, Gabriel would have to find another way to cross the gap." "Gandolfi's Combat Cross was proving valuable in the battle to defeat the enemy hordes." Fight skip (full power): you can escape the Lycanthrope battle after acquiring Shadow Magic using a high jump despite the inactive grapple points. Get on top of the statue head and do a high jump that finishes up with your second jump. You should be able to grap the ledges up there, and the grapple point far above is at least active, allowing you to escape. 2-5: Agharta "The watchful ruins of Agharta lay before Gabriel as he travelled across its desolate streets." Sequence break (full power): skipping entire level Since the level exit is so nearby, why not? Approach the so-called unclimbable wall that's right where you start the level at. Find a sort of corner in the wall against which to do a high jump. It's another of those kinds of high jumps that end with Holy Water lugging so that you end on top of the thin invisible wall and can propel yourself on top of the circular platform of the tower. From there, approach the level exit. Jump around a small invisible wall to grab the grapple point where you descend at the end of the level. A quick way of getting through the invisible collision, is to enter the statue that's located on the right of screen, then jump up through its head, then jump left of screen. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t7ha4KV2vA "Gabriel fought for his very survival, as the packs of Lycanthropes swarmed to take his life." "Wargs don't like to be ridden, and would eat anyone audacious enough to try such a thing. For the rider, it's kill or be killed." Speed strategy (full power): you don't need a Warg to jump over the chasms, just a double jump will do. "Small Trolls made the city their home, seeking the protection of their bigger, stronger cousings." "Once he got the beast under control, Gabriel could use the mighty strength of the Troll as his own." Sequence break (full power): instead of mounting a troll to bash down the gate, you can jump over it using a Wings high jump. 2-6: Dark Dungeon "Gabriel followed the mysterious girl further into the depths of the City." Speed strategy (full power): speed strats for the beginning rapple part After landing on the first ledge of the level, go around the corner and do a double jump towards Gabriel's back. With the right position, you can grab onto the first rappel point earlier this way. From that rappel point, instead of jumping forward, do a double jump that leans heavily to the right. Try to get Gabriel as far as inside the brick walls, then get a little more height and length to your jump by doing Avalanche Punch -> Landslide Punch (for example). You should drop down inside the corridor leading further into the Dungeon. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3nbI14s_6k Collision flaw (full power): you can get out of bounds during the last part of the beginning rappel. After reaching the point where you can drop down and continue the level, refrain from doing so and instead proceed towards the bonus area. There's a rappel that goes past some waterfalls leading to another rappel point. From this rappel point, drop down for about a second and make a double jump towards the walls. Gabriel should end up outside bounds, where there's a little bit of floor you can run on. The camera is awful, and it's questionable if you can do anything useful with this. (c: DragoonSorceress) Video demonstration: 1, DragonSorceress' vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icP6JJKkhmM "Only some fires illuminated the deepest levels of the city dungeons." "A handful of Gremlins attacked Gabriel with flaming rocks." Sequence break (full power): two keys skip At the part where you must extend a bridge with two keys, there's an invisible wall in between the two statues preventing progress. You can jump over the wall with Wings high jump and land on invisible floor. You can visit the 2nd key area early this way if you like, but it is more efficient to not land down at all, and instead do a Sprint double jump from on top of the invisible wall to get over another invisible wall that's right ahead. After that you've effectively skipped getting both keys. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid (skip v2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYBLcP-0UBE 2, satvara's vid (skip v1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFRzpMMhtFI 2-7: Sanctuary Entrance "Gabriel explored the ruins of Agharta, looking for power crystal nodes." Sequence break (full power): skipping getting the crystal You can do a massive high jump over the gate here, allowing you to progress without having a full crystal. Although, in a full power speedrun it's arguable if it's not faster to just open the gate normally. Then, the second gate can be high jumped over as well, skipping the puzzle inside the temple. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyeP-zS4P0 "The city streets were littered with the corpses of fallen Brotherhood warriors." "Once the Dark Crystal was complete, Gabriel had to hurry towards the entrance, where Claudia awaited." "A Cave Troll guarded one of the Dark Crystal nodes." "Another closed door blocked them from progressing towards the chamber of the Titans." 2-8: Sanctuary of Titans "The massive Stone Idol Titan stood menacingly before Gabriel." Speed strat: you can break a Dark Crystal to heavily damage the Stone Idol Titan. It seems to reduce hit points in all of the Titan's runes to minimum, so that only one hit will destroy them after that. Wasted potential: it seems that the cutscene of the stone hitting the Titan can't be glitched with Dark Crystal. "Gabriel hung precariously from the surface of the stone Titan." 2-9: The Black Knight "Claiming vengeance for Claudia, his prot�g��, the Black Knight Golem ferociously attacked Gabriel." 3-1: The Three Towers "With the Dark Gauntlet on his hand, Gabriel headed towards the Lycanthrope fortress." Collision flaw (full power): there's an invisible ledge on top of the door you have to break open. It's a bit glitchy and can launch Gabriel away from it rarely. You can also climb on top of the door using the ledge, ending up in between invisible walls and stuck eternally. Speed strat: you can cancel the cutscene that occurs after having punched the statue to the doors by fondling your Dark Crystal at a right time. This way you get to move sooner than otherwise. "A few Lycanthropes would provide Gabriel with the necessary Shadow Magic." Out of bounds (full power): after getting outside of the building, there's a small chasm you have to cross. Jump towards foreground and activate double jump quite late, and Gabriel will miss death collision and fly to the unknown landscapes of Out of Bounds. Unfortunately it may be that this level has its OoB floor too low for you to jump back out from there again. Speed strategy (full power): at the same chasm there's an invisible wall in the way, preventing you from progressing before getting the statue next to the chasm. But you can do a Sprint/high jump from under the invisible wall and help yourself to the other side some seconds quicker. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbtOSbhzkI "Gabriel had to find a way to cross the broken bridge." Other (full power): the cutscene that starts after you've climbed up the cliffside can be glitched. Do a double jump before climbing up - this way you hit the cutscene's trigger and start it but fall to your death. The rest of the scene has a glitched camera angle... nothing too special. "A large group of Lycanthropes ambushed Gabriel, but got more than they bargained for." Sequence break (full power): skipping a Lycanthrope fight After having climbed up a ridge and seen a cutscene where a close-up of the temple face is shown, some foes attack Gabriel. You can do a high jump over the gate in front of you to just skip all of it. (c: satvara) An older method involved going out of bounds with a Sprint jump to the left after having climbed up and getting back in bounds later. It's slower and more complicated doing it like this, so the first method is recommended. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid of v2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtzHvfgNK7I 2, satvara's vid of v1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmokXHf7VqQ "The ruins of the Three Towers stood ominously before the Brotherhood hero." Sequence break (full power): when you reach the yard with the turnable crank, you can do a small high jump from the stairs to the left to grab the ledges on the wall and climb inside the ruin. This skips another fight. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPWNIsFVAc Other: it seems that one of the rappel points can potentially glitch up so that you die if you climb up it. Reason or frequency of the glitch unknown. Video demonstration: 1, SebastianGauge's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE_qwFnUd24 3-2: The Dark Lord of the Lycans "A beam of magical light revealed the power of the Dark Lord of the Lycanthropes." "The full moon shone above the two fighters while they exchanged fiery blows." Sequence break: skip boss fight That's right, Gabriel can spare the life of this Lord of Shadow. All you have to do is start the fight with him, then high jump over the invisible wall in front of the exit corridor and jump there. Even with the combat camera, landing the jumps shouldn't be too hard to do. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBgB2gut8Q "The Dark Lord changed into a monstrous werewolf and resumed combat." "The Dark Lord sent his vital energy to the stone monoliths surrounding the platform." "Gabriel explored his new movement abilities, obtained with the Cyclone Boots." 4-1: Mountain Fortress "The walls of the mountain fortress rose up on the horizon, waiting for the courageous hero." Speed strategy: you can skip some climbing by doing a high jump over the invisible wall in your way. You land on the ceiling, which as usual is slippery stuff instead of normal floor, but it's possible to make your way past it regardless by sliding on top. At the end you fall down back in bounds and can continue on like normal. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE "Two packs of Small Trolls were no match for Gabriel's skills." Sequence break (full power): skipping later half of the level Using this skip, you skip all the way from before the Ogre to the end of the level. At the stairs just before you reach a doorway which has its door smashed up, do a double jump slightly left and towards the screen, thus going over an invisible wall. See that broken section of a column's base sticking up out of the ground at the left bottom of the stairs? Get on it and do a large backwards double jump far left of screen to end up near a visible out-of-bounds ledge. If you don't get killed by the death collision below you, high jump up to that ledge. Once you are up there, walk along the left edge of that platform towards the grapple area, and do a double jump to end up directly behind the platform that the grapple normally takes you to. The camera angle with then change showing you a ledge, then double jump up directly behind it to end up on an invisible floor. Start running in a North Westerly direction until the camera changes, at which point you'll notice that Gabriel is underneath the area where the final door of the level is. All you need to do now is double jump up to an invisible floor on the left of screen, and from there do a high jump up to the actual level that you'll see on your right. Make an out-of-bounds route to the final door and hit the final trigger that is located next to it. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HCxZg8kbdQ "An enormous monster appeared on the other side of the wall, roaring ferociously." Other: in the Ogre chase scene, all drops are instantly fatal instead of just damaging. Maybe so that respawning next to the pit wouldn't mess up the scene's internal timing. "The Ogre smashed his fist along the outer walls of the fortress, trying to catch Gabriel." "The Ogre smashed and smashed in an attempt to crush the annoying human that kept bothering him." Sequence break (full power): skip the Ogre fight A traditionalist way to skip the Ogre fight: just high jump past the invisible wall blocking the exit. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE "Large and Small Trolls descended from the fortress walls to attack the Brotherhood warrior." Sequence break (full power): Troll fight and Chupacabra skip At the rappel point that takes you to the final stretch of the level, after flying over the wall quickly start a decent-sized high jump to your right. You probably need to use at least two Holy Waters and other tricks to do it. Afterwards you fall down out of bounds, beneath the level, but fortunately the floor there is not too low and you can take this opportunity to navigate your way past all the obstacles and get to the end of the level in record time. Note that it's possible to use some invisible floor to the left close to the very end of the level to get a higher jump when you need to get back on ground level. (c: satvara) It's possible to return to ground level earlier too, but it's cumbersome to get to the exit gate out of bounds this way. This method of doing things is now obsolete. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hqLq-xWeFw 2, satvara's vid of old Chupacabra skip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE "Gabriel searched for the elusive Chupacabras around the ruins, trying to recover his stolen Relics." "Once he had his Relics back, Gabriel headed towards the tall tower that crowned the mountain fortress." 4-2: The Crow Witch "Unexpectedly, a fire was burning in the lowest floor of the tower." "Gabriel shivered as he left the relative warmth of the tower's interior." "Wrapped in ragged pieces of cloth, the phantasmagoric Swordmasters attacked Gabriel." Sequence break: skip Swordmaster fights After entering the second floor, just head to the right and do a small high jump over the closed gate. This skips the first fight. Then, after entering third floor, head to the back wall of the room and do a high jump against it. Gain height until you see the rappel point prompt appear, then grab it. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1F5Pc3trlw "The Crow Witch and her sons fought Gabriel on top of the fortress tower." 5-1: Veros Woods "An inch of snow covered the withered trees of Veros Woods." "Tribes of mountain Goblins inhabited these lands, attacking travellers and adventurers." Wasted potential: it seems to be extremely difficult, if not impossible to skip the Chupacabra with our current trick knowledge. You can get past the first trigger wall with some hardships by doing some precise high jumping, but before long the Chupacabra scene activates anyway... are there two huge trigger walls in the area? Going around the entire area in Out of Bounds also doesn't seem like an option because the floor there is very unstable. Hmm, what to do... Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7_6b6KgFbo "Gabriel could hear the irritating voice of the Chupacabras, teasing him." "Having lost the magic Relics, Gabriel had to fight the Goblins using only his skills." Sequence break: you can use cheats after Chupacabra has taken away your powers to give the powers back to you. A pretty lame way to go about it, but perhaps good for casual playing if you just can't be bothered with the Chupacabra... Sequence break: if you dismount the Warthog in front of where the Chupacabra is hiding, Gabriel momentarily ends up standing on air. At that moment you can jump directly to the final climbing section that leads to the Chupacabra. You can also get to that ledge by jumping on a triangular wooden structure located at the same area, and then jumping to the final ledge. 5-2: Wygol Village "As he walked through the empty streets of Wygol Village, Gabriel could feel the fear that gripped the townsfolk." Sequence break (full power): skipping everything This entire level can be skipped by high jumping over any wall (ideally to the right or back), and then running diagonally to the bottom right corner of the screen. It turns out that the final area of the level is located in that direction, and all it takes is doing a sprint/double jump to hit the end-level trigger. The location is tricky to hit thanks to bad camera angles, but a good rule of thumb is to jump when you see about 3 or 4 trees to your right and just when a statue is about to appear on-screen to your upper-left of screen. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jbYrM1fhIc Wasted potential: the Ark of Brotherhood could be reached with a high jump, if it weren't for an invisible wall also blocking your path. The wall only goes away after you get Wings. "The foul stench of corrupted flesh permeated the graveyard." "Gabriel and Zobek stood shoulder to shoulder, fighting the ghouls invading the graveyard." Sequence break (full power): skip rest of the level Two a bit outdated skips since we now can skip the entire Wygol Village. After reaching the graveyard, do a high jump on top of the exit gate, and from there jump out of bounds to your left. Run a little way under the mausoleum and do a double jump towards the exit... finishing the level. (c: satvara) Older method involves just jumping over the gate, but finishing the rest of the level normally. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLpE_41_a2g 2, satvara's vid of older method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO7eTQ8Cwzw Other: you can cause a slight glitchy effect with the tombstone prompts at the graveyard using Holy Cross. Gabriel looks like he is completely disinterested in them and doesn't have his Cross-Chain whipped around them until the actual QTE starts. "The small mausoleum housed another of the powerful Brotherhood relics designed by Gandolfi." 5-3: Abbey Catacombs "Gabriel and Zobek travelled through the tunnels that connected Wygol Village with its abbey." "The two Brotherhood comrades fought together against the incoming horde of Vampires." "The traps set up by the abbot made the acquisition of the two keys more difficult." Sequence break (full power): skip everything At the start of the level you're pitted against Vampires. Instead of fighting them, jump on top of the closed gate. Don't jump from too close because the archway will block you. From on top of the gate, do a backwards double jump to the left and back. You'll hit the side of a corridor from much later in the level, except you're out of bounds (and everything might be invisible for a moment). From there just go towards the back, then around the corner, jump forward and you'll hit the level exit. (c: satvara) An old variation just jumps over the exit gates to get to the puzzle area sooner. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5EmRG_Jso 2, satvara's vid of old variation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e50-ooxhxnc Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross breakout of the key picking up animations, saving negligible time at best. "Inside the inner cloister, another obstacle held the pair of Brotherhood warriors back for a while." Sequence break (full power): puzzle skip After reaching the puzzle courtyard, simply high jump on top of the south wall, and from there you can double jump and hit the level exit without solving the puzzle. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nYX-bTXNuU 5-4: Abbey Library "Gabriel and Zobek entered the library, following the trail of the abbot." "Gabriel had to deal with the animated Armor while Zobek searched for an exit." Sequence break: fight and 1st (and even 2nd) puzzle room skip Before entering the room where a fight against an Animated Armor begins, high jump over the back wall. While out-of-bounds, you can either get directly inside the room that contains the 1st light puzzle, by jumping left & forwards towards some visible graphics. Or you can walk left along the checkered wall to get near the stairs past the exit door. Do a Shoulder Charge/long jump (into an air-launch/high jump) to get to the top of the stairs that are located past the exit door of the 1st light puzzle. Touch a loading trigger behind the exit door which will load the area with the second puzzle, allowing you to proceed normally. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration: 1, findle's vid (skipping the 1st light puzzle) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJg4KNvESok 2, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QecuSKlTJU Other: you can use a Dark Crystal before the cutscene that activates after the Animated Armor fight. This doesn't cause any notable effects, just makes Gabriel freeze at the end of it. "Alone, Gabriel explored the library's upper floor, looking for a solution to the puzzle." Other: you can go out of bounds mid-way of the puzzle by utilizing Ultimate Shadow at the trigger which switches areas. Sequence break: skip rest of the level An alternative way to skip things in this level. After getting into the second puzzle room, do a high jump on top of the invisible wall that's in the corner to the left of the room's exit door. From there, you could probably navigate into the corridor behind the door, backtracking to touch the loading trigger and continue from there... or you can take the jump a little further still. From on top of the first wall, you can high jump on top of another invisible wall in front of the exit door. Getting on top is just a matter of pure positioning and practice. End the jump with a Holy Water throw to land easier. From there, a backwards double jump or Shoulder Charge jump slightly to the left gets you outside the exit corridor out of bounds. From there, jump over yet another wall (at least this is a pretty small wall), and the level is finished. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94fqfJHziQM Sequence break: skip third puzzle Another alternative to skipping things. When you enter the third puzzle room area, get around the corner of the stairs and onto the higher main corridor. Then do a high jump towards the screen, and once you get over the wall, you should be where the exit to the level is. Try walking around if you don't hit it instantly. (c: satvara) Note that the camera for doing this trick will be different from the example below if you do it as your first thing after entering the third puzzle room. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K93RhrUMojI 5-5: Abbey Tower "The last rays of sunlight illuminated the snow covered grounds of the Abbey tower." Speed strategy: you can skip the cutscene at the end of the short tunnel by doing a Shoulder Charge through it. Though it probably takes just as long to skip the cutscene via the menu. Collision flaw: at the ground level, go as far back in the level as you can. Jumping against the back corner right where the trench goes by, there's some strange collision there that can make Gabriel fall endlessly or slightly get stuck. "Gabriel struggled against the continuous attacks of Ghouls and Gremlins." Wasted potential: the bridge lowering prompt apparently won't become glitched with Holy Cross. "As he crossed the ruined bridge, more Gremlins flew towards Gabriel, throwing fireballs at him." Sequence break: in the inner yard, you'd normally have to open up a gate to reach a staircase that leads you to a slightly higher level. You can use Gauntlet high jump to get to that higher level early. However, you may need some luck to get through the climbing bit with the Gremlins still around. "Gabriel scaled the Abbey tower, avoiding the attacks of the vexing Gremlins." Speed strat (full power): speeding up climbing A fancy strategy that saves some seconds over normal completion: start doing a high jump from a normal jump - delay its start a little so that you can hit the trigger that changes the camera, otherwise you won't see where you're going. Gain a little bit of height, then use your second jump to end up on some collision on top of the brick wall to your right. This patch of collision can be a bit hard to hit. Then, do a double jump to go standing on the ledges at the right end of the wall, and from there jump around the corner. Start climbing normally to use the rappel point and continue from there on normally. (c: AKheon) A less fancy but more practical approach could be to just make a double jump around the corner to grab the leftmost ledges of the right wall early. This way you skip some seconds of climbing without wasting any resources. Sadly the rappel points can't be latched onto so easily from a high jump, otherwise you could've maybe saved more time. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid of the fancy strategy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExrOQgykjvE Other: at the very end of the climbing, when you have to kick the window in, you can start the motion but then jump to a completely different direction instead. The cutscene kicks in regardless. Just looks funny. 5-6: Brauner "A Vampire raiding party was already attacking the small village of Wygol when Gabriel reached it." "The horrific leader of the Vampire group, Brauner, attacked Gabriel, wielding a cruel, double-edged sword." Wasted potential: you can barely use a Dark Crystal before the cutscene where Brauner appears. However, it doesn't appear to do much else than freeze Gabriel in one spot afterwards. 5-7: Castle Sewers "A thankful villager led Gabriel to the secret entrance of the sewage system beneath the Vampire Castle." "Gabriel didn't have to enter the muddy waters of the sewers to know that they were infested with Naiads." Speed strategy: the switches here can be pulled quicker by using Holy Cross to break out of the switch animations. It is done simply by having Holy Cross active and shooting light when you examine the switches. Speed strategy (full power): you can double jump around the gushing pipes, skipping pulling the switches. Sequence break (full power): skip rest of the level You can high jump on top of the invisible wall at the back of the skeleton fight room, and from there double jump over the slippery collision of the exit corridor. Moving slowly forward, you eventually hit the level finish trigger. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nx-qAuvuQA "The bleached bones of the Skeleton Warriors rose up to attack Gabriel." "The trap laid out inside the narrow passage had caught many adventurers in the past." 6-1: Castle Courtyard "The stones of the Vampire Castle were partially concealed by a soft mantle of snow." Speed strat (full power): at the climbing section in the start, you can drop off the ledge and use your double jump to reach a slightly later rappel point on the wall, saving a little climbing time. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid of this and many later tricks too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmFs3rVfS8A Speed strat (full power): at the climbing section above ground, you can use double jump to skip a little of climbing. However, if you do this, you can't do the skip here. Sequence break (full power): at the climbing section, after having jumped over the chasm to get to the other side of the fence, drop down from the climbing wall and use double jump to jump over the wall you were climbing, then steer to the right. You'll fall down into the Sewers without too much effort. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, see the above vid "When Gabriel tried to open the metal grille, two animated suits of armor materialized before him." "Inside the castle prison, Vampires kept caged creatures to feed off their blood." Sequence break (full power): retry from checkpoint where Gabriel falls into the dungeon. While falling down, steer to the right and do a double jump to get to the higher level instantly, skipping the skeletons + warg battle. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, see the above vid "Vampires could only attack Gabriel inside the dungeons, with the sun still burning over the world." Speed strat: being quick and utilizing Fairies, you can open up the stake door at the end of the level without having to bother with the enemies. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, see the above vid 6-2: Maze Gardens "The presence of the Dark Lord had turned the once-verdant gardens of the mountain castle into a mockery of life." Sequence break (full power): you can get over the garden wall that would require you to punch a climbing pillar closer with a moderately low jump. Just a Wings double jump suffices, if you got Wings. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8xxI3HHZx0 "Gabriel used the tamed giant Spider to make his way through the garden maze." "A mysterious puzzle inside the garden greenhouse hid the castle key." "Once he had the key in his hands, Gabriel could head on towards the entrance to the castle." Sequence break (full power): you can avoid having to use the Spider to enter the area that contains a puzzle. This is done by double jumping on top of the winged-statue that is located to the right of the puzzle's entrance. Then do an Upwards Guillotine launch to end up above the puzzle's entrance, and use a high jump to end up on a decent sized ledge above it. From there, double jump towards the puzzle and you'll end up right in front of it. After you get the key, you have to restart so that the web at the exit gets loaded, so that you can leave. Video demonstration: 1, see the above vid Wasted potential: using Ultimate Light to try to rapidly cross the spider web doesn't seem to work at the puzzle's exit. 6-3: Castle Hall "The scared Vampires saw the rays of sunlight streaming through the open windows." "Warm shafts of sunlight entered the room through the ragged curtains of the windows." Sequence break: skip most of the level You can get through this level without really killing any Vampires at all, or even bothering with the puzzle. You can get past the first fight by using Fairies and a touch of luck to open the stake door without enemies pestering you. Finally, the big door that you need to solve the puzzle to open can just be jumped over. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up8nbcFOhM4 "Inside the small lateral room, a new puzzle of magic runes hid the secret to open the last door." Untested: there's an Ark of Brotherhood with a dagger upgrade in it, quite high. Like with the other power-ups you're supposed to pick up only after getting the Wings, it's likely that you could use a non-Wings jump to get to the needed height but there's an invisible wall in the way. "After the sunset, the Vampires were able to roam freely, searching their adversary." "The mysterious Vampire child challenged Gabriel to a strange game of 'chess'." 6-4: Refectory "Inside the refectory, the foul stench of rotting meat assailed the nostrils of our hero." Sequence break: skip Evil Butcher At the start of the level, having seen the scene with Ghouls, do a small high jump to the left-back corner to get on top of the invisible wall there. From there, double jump towards the screen and left to get to the corridor leading to the exit while out of bounds. Sprint a little while along the corridor, then double jump. You'll hit the cutscene which shows you the rune gate... and after retrying, you're back in bounds and ready to roll. You can actually do this high jump from any spot in the first corridor, but the invisible walls are at their lowest next to the railing after having seen the Ghouls scene. (c: satvara) Yet another alternative way, potentially the fastest way, is doing a high jump from the exit corridor itself. You see the crossed beams across the ceiling? With precise positioning, you can land on them and use them to double jump outside bounds, preferably to the left. This is because from there you can long jump across to the final battle arena (the narrow hallway to the arena seems to have no collision that you can walk on while out-of-bounds). Then make your way behind the final door to trigger the end of level. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration 1, satvara's vid of the original way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUQ7_Wlals 2, findlestick's vid jumping from another spot (at around 1:19) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8&t=1m19s 3, sticklefind's vid (AKA findlestick) of the newest, potentially fastest way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdYuJF06ujk Sequence break: skipping the meat puzzle For just skipping this part and going to fight Evil Butcher early, do a high jump to the right side of the balcony instead. After getting on top of the invisible wall, jump past the right wall. From there you can activate the rappel point and get thrown to the next part of the level a little earlier than normal. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid (at around 0:43) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8 Wasted potential: you can Holy Cross break out of the bell ringing animation and get in the vicinity of the opening latch and its rappel point even without getting the meat, but activating the rappel point (or doing anything else) is not possible during the part it's visible. Other: Gabriel's meat weapon glitch A humorous glitch in which Gabriel starts using a rotten slab of meat as a weapon. It happens if you first skip Evil Butcher by doing one of the above skips, then return to the main area and open the door to the 2nd part of the level early. If you pick up the slab of meat and, instead of setting it to the plate, walk with it to the 2nd part of the level, things glitch up and Gabriel returns to his normal state while accidentally keeping the meat in his hands. So now, when he attacks enemies, it looks like he does it with a piece of meat. Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8 "The Butcher, with a knife in one hand and a sword in the other, charged at Gabriel." Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross break out of the key picking up animation, saving a little time... in theory. "Gabriel picked up the key that the Butcher dropped, used it to open the door, and left the dreadful kitchen." "The exit to the balcony outside was guarded by a bunch of fearsome enemies." Sequence break (full power): skip the end level fighting At the area where the runes are, latch onto the rappel point to the right. Climb to the highest point, climb around the corner, then use your double jump to hit a small platform behind the large lamp. Use Guillotine to make the game think Gabriel is momentarily on ground level again, and use Whirwind Flap to launch yourself up and follow it up with high jump techniques to get over the wall. Once beyond the wall, get behind the gate and double jump towards the back to hit the level exit trigger. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUQ7_Wlals 7-1: Balcony "As soon as he was outside, more Vampires rushed Gabriel." "Gabriel used the few remaining wooden planks to move across the ruined roofs of the castle." Sequence break (full power): from the upper platform, you can sprint & double jump over the balancing beams to quickly end up on the other side. Collision flaw: you can go out of bounds at the balancing beam section by doing a backwards double jump way beyond the beams. So far this OoB doesn't have an use, though. (c: nia69870) Video demonstration: 1, nia69870's vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1kp_eg_U28 "Some ghostly swordmasters tried to stop Gabriel on the frozen balcony." "It was getting colder outside; Gabriel would have to seek refuge soon." Sequence break: skip rest of the level At the locked gate, do a high jump from the left side of the fence. You should drop down on some floor outside bounds. From there, jump forward to enter the puzzle room but still out of bounds. The collision is pretty shoddy here, so watch out. Try to do a sprint jump towards the exit without falling down. Remain close to the corridor wall to finish the level. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLBAIyhaxY "A child's toy in the room was the key to open the closed door that led to the laboratory." 7-2: Electric Laboratory "Only the buzzing sounds of the strange machinery could be heard inside the laboratory." Glitch control: if you get past the damage-dealing outer layer of an electric wall, by for example hitting it while Gabriel is facing the wrong way, you only come upon a huge invisible wall that prevents your passage. By the way, there are at least three different ways to get past the damage layer. One is to hit it facing the wrong way - Gabriel is also knocked away to the wrong direction. Second is to Shoulder Charge through the damage layer. Third is to use Ultimate Light or Shadow to interrupt the knockback animation right as it starts. Speed strat: the scene when you are entering the second part of the laboratory can be skipped by Shoulder Charging through it. (c: findlestick) Speed strat: the second puzzle can be sped up in an interesting way. It involves getting to the left side of the area, then smashing yourself into the electric fence without getting knocked away (by doing a backwards roll to it, for example). From that location, you can shoot three Explosive Daggers in a row towards the plate on the far right wall (skipping scenes in between the shots). Then, just run past the electric walls as they toggle on and off. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY83sWaUk9A Wasted potential: you can glitch up the level transition after the second puzzle room using Ultimate Shadow, but it looks like you can't go out of bounds from there regardless. (c: findlestick) Speed strat: the scene when you are entering the final part of the laboratory can be skipped by Shoulder Charging through it. Sequence break: skip third puzzle and the Mechanical Monstrosity boss After entering the third puzzle room, run to the breakable wall to the left. Do a small high jump on top of the wall. From there, do another high jump towards to your right to get over the invisible wall. Now you're out of bounds in the corner leading towards the Mechanical Monstrosity boss fight. Your next goal is to go around the boss arena out of bounds. The floor is somewhat shoddy here, so be careful. Jump over a rough spot to reach the end of the room where there's the huge egg - it's a safe area with good floor underneath. Then, get around the corner and proceed onwards towards the exit corridor. The floor is decent here, and you can normally run much of the way. The red prism has to be picked up in order for the level exit to activate, but it's not a difficult job to get: just backwards roll to the electric fence to get close enough to the prism and pick it up. But then you must quickly touch the level exit (inside the archway to the right) before the Mechanical Monstrosity fight starts, as it is timed to start a few seconds after you've picked up the prism. Avoiding the Boss fight, is reliably done by pressing the select button as soon as you hit the level exit trigger. And thus you skipped both the puzzle and the boss. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheH65NZffY Other: you can kill Gabriel by running to an electric fence the same time the Mechanical Monstrosity boss cutscene starts. The cutscene plays out like normal, but afterwards Gabriel dies instantly in a very nonchalant looking pose. Other: you can use Dark Crystal right before the fight with Mechanical Monstrosity begins. This causes the boss to appear during the cutscene, so that there are two Monstrosities at the same time... the boss music also starts earlier than normal. But afterwards, you get stuck like usual. This can also happen if you attempted to do the above Monstrosity Boss skip, but failed to successfully activate the final level trigger as you got the red lens. "Gabriel was trapped in the electric cage, forced to fight the scorpion-like creature." "Gabriel reached the observatory, but he found that the mysterious device there wouldn't work without its missing piece." "Once Gabriel acquired the red prism, he only had to find his way across the labyrinth to get to the Observatory." 7-3: Chromatic Observatory "The mirrors inside the device channeled the moonlight towards the colored prisms at the base, bathing the room in an eerie light." "Gabriel explored the rooms surrounding the observatory, hoping to find an exit." Sequence break (full power): you can skip much of the level by high jumping over the wall and getting past the purple-colored archway out of bounds. One of the fastest (and resource-wise cheapest) ways to go about it is to liberally abuse the Guillotine ascension tactic. Aim to the right corner of the purple door, double jump high enough and then do a Guillotine. Gabriel will land on some invisible collision, from which you can do a Whirwind Flap and another Guillotine... the motion can be repeated around three times, and on the last time you should aim towards the center of the doorway instead. possibly lob a Holy Water at the top to inch slightly forward in air and drop to the other side of the wall. If you end up stuck on collision behind the door, doing some somersaults towards the next area will get you past it. Once you get inside the room past the doorway, the boss cutscene begins in which Laura (fittingly?) calls you a cheat. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqf-ZUVn31M Speedrun strategy: you can skip the switch pulling for accessing the lens menu by using Holy Cross while activating the switch. Saves some seconds. Other / Speedrun strategy: By exiting the lens menu at the same time you choose a lens combination that makes a door open, you're allowed to continue using the menu while freely moving. This way you can mess around with the door openings and such and glitch the camera angle during fights. Well, most importantly for a speedrunner, you can move a lot earlier than normal after using the device, saving additional seconds. Untested - completing level while lens menu is open. That would be a real challenge for many reasons, one of which is the awful camera. Second is that activating some prompts in the lens menu closes it, and if you're not very careful, you will end up doing that during the fight. But nothing interesting should happen anyway... just an idea for masochists. Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPlB8Y4uH_E "Some Vampires would provide Gabriel with the Shadow Magic needed to activate the magic tiles." Speed strategy: if you do Shoulder Charges over the magic tiles quick enough, you needn't bother with the Vampires at all. Other: just backtracking to the central room from any smaller area opened with the different lenses causes enemies to unload. Sequence break: by using the Holy Cross exploit, you are able to escape from the trap rooms after picking up the lenses before the gates close up on you. (c: AKheon) Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid (at 01:05) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fva4LgyrBSk "Dangerous Swordmasters also roamed around this part of the Vampire Castle." "Laura saw how Gabriel fought her magically animated ragdolls." Other: one time, as I was finishing the level and started attacking the corpse of the last Deadly Toy that was left, I was sent to the "Level Cleared"-screen without having seen the final cinematic but with the cinematic audio playing in the background. The cinematic audio continued even as I went to another level. 8-1: Outer Wall "Deadly icicles hung like crystal spears above Gabriel's head." Other (full power): at the very start of the level, you can Wings jump over the invisible wall to get back to Chromatic Observatory area. Of course it isn't the real Chromatic Observatory, just an unloaded facade. Speed strategy (full power): If you sprint/double-jump through the gap in the rail towards the narrow vertical wall section. You can stand on an out-of- bounds ledge (that faces the screen), from which you can do a minor high jump in order to get within range of the second grapple. Thus skipping the first climbing sections. "A group of Vampires came out of their holes to attack Gabriel." Sequence break (full power): skipping the rune gate Just do a relatively high jump over the rune gate to skip activating the runes or fighting Vampires. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F1q0jtXRc8 "Gabriel ran along the slippery surface of the giant chain that connected the central tower to the rest of the castle." Speedrun note: the shape of the chain can make your Sprint die at random times. "Gabriel entered the circular platform that linked the two chains together." Sequence break: skipping the key Ignore the room beneath the circular platform where you normally get the key from. Instead, run to the exit of the level. Stomp on top of a statue to the right of the door to gain more height. From there, do a Whirwind Flap to start a high jump. First you need to face the wall and gain enough height to rise out of bounds, bypassing the ceiling. Then you need to turn around and get a footing on the ceiling - Landslide Punch at the end of the high jump should work for this. From the ceiling, jump towards the back of the screen, and (after some slippery ceiling collision) you reach the exit corridor. Backtracking to the gate will activate the level finish trigger. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BtM0bjhspE Sequence break: skipping Swordmaster fight You can use Holy Cross break out to cut the key picking up animation short, allowing you to escape the room before it becomes sealed and the fight begins. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi4ovHnN_R4 "A few torches illuminated the entrance room to the central tower of the castle." 8-2: The Clockwork Tower "Moving gears of various sizes and shapes filled the interior of the Clockwork Tower." Speed tricks (full power): Using double jump, you can speed up the platforming section of this level quite a bit. findlestick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wrQ6UxtP4o Speed strategy (full power): skipping the 2nd level You have to turn the first crank, otherwise the final crank of the level won't load. Position Gabriel as far left of screen as possible, and do a minor high jump directly towards the screen (and very slightly left if you're having trouble) you'll end up on top of a small ledge. If the camera angle doesn't change while you are up there, lightly tap the left controller to your right once to get a better camera angle. From here you want to do a sprint + double jump towards the screen/slightly right, so that you end up just to the left of where you'll see the neutral orb fountain during the jump. With some luck you'll end up on the platform that's located under the final grapple point. Then a double jump followed by a direct air attack will put Gabriel within the grapple point's activation area. Use it to get to the final battle arena. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4_SXk8DiOM Sequence break: skipping Mechanical Monstrosity II fight First, you need some luck to turn the fighting arena crank all the way through even with the boss pestering you. A good strategy to increase your chances of turning the crank untouched, is to start turning the crank anti-clockwise approximately 1/3 at the moment that you see the camera change as the Monstrosity appears. Then just turn the crank clockwise all the way without a pause. With luck, the Monstrosity will be forced to chase you around the crank, then as it changes direction, his attacks may be forced past Gabriel's body. It's also possible for the force of Gabriel's crank turning, to make the Monstrosity's attacks cut short, and making it shift away harmlessly from Gabriel (but this is if you're particulary lucky). Then, do a high jump over the invisible wall separating you from the exit. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5-Mh5YhVxA "The mechanical monstrosity that Gabriel fought in the laboratory had followed him up to the tower." 8-3: Olrox "Olrox roared ferociously for the death of his twin brother, and charged Gabriel." Sequence break: skipping Olrox and puzzle One way to do this skip is done by first stunning Olrox (so he won't disturb your high jump), then jump onto one of those winged-statues that surround the arena, so pick one that is closest to the door. Then start a high jump, but when you start to see out-of-bounds do a Guillotine attack on some collision up there. This will enable you to stand on it and jump out-of-bounds to some collision floor that only extends a little bit beyond the arena (so don't veer too far). The final trigger is difficult to hit since it's surrounded by walls, so you need to use both jumps to position Gabriel to directly under the floor. Gabriel will fall out-of-bounds at that point, which isn't an issue once you've hit the final trigger. Findlestick has a different method which is slightly easier and more direct. See those chains hanging across the roof? Well, after stunning Olrox, head directly underneath the chain that is located directly to the right-hand-side of the door. Do a launch, followed by a Avalanche Punch, an air Direct attack...at that point you'll be directly next to the chain during your technique. Then all you need to do is (in the same motion) is throw a Holy Water onto it, and you'll end up standing on it. This is a much higher vantage point from which to start another high jump, so do so over the right-hand-side of the door. Once you see Gabriel go out-of-bounds you can jump onto a roof that belongs to the hallway behind the exit door. Since you can stand on it, either jump into the hallway to hit the final trigger (you can jump in from the furthest side of the hallway) or use both jumps to position Gabriel to directly under the floor. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzWejKJyMQ "Without his supply of fresh Lycanthrope blood, the Vampire commander slowly weakened." "Olrox vanished, leaving only a pool of murky blood where he fell." 8-4: The Throne Room "The snowstorm blasting the tower was getting stronger as Gabriel got closer to the Dark Lord." "Carmilla summoned her minions and retired from the arena, watching Gabriel as he struggled against his enemies." Wasted potential?: based on a single test, the cutscene where Carmilla transforms does not start until any Dark Crystal-related scenes are over. "The Queen of Vampires transformed into a monstrous creature, descended to the arena, and prepared to destroy Gabriel." 9-1: Bones Forest "The Seraph Shoulders helped Gabriel to overcome the obstacles laid out in the desolate Bones Forest." "With dreadful screams, the group of zombie-like creatures ripped their own heads off and threw them towards Gabriel." Sequence break: skipping Headless Burrower battle After the battle starts, run through the yard and do a small high jump over the left wooden obstacle. Start the jump from its right side to not get blown away, and then do a hefty double jump towards the corridor behind the obstacle to get around some extraneous collision below you. And thus you skipped this battle. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBSpFkHwixs Sequence break: skipping Chupacabra Once you have used 2 grapples to cross a chasm, avoid hitting the Chupacabra battle trigger, which can be tricky since it's very close to where Gabriel should land. High jump directly over the trigger, but it's very important to start your high jump from one single jump (or a non double-jump launch). This is because soon you will be on top of slippery collision above the Chupacabra trigger, and it's easier if you keep your second jump to be able to jump back off it. When you reach a medium height, use consecutive water bombs to edge over the trigger. When you suddenly see Gabriel land on the collision, jump diagonally left/forwards and do a somersault forwards off the slippery collision. This skip can be tricky since the slippery collision slopes down to the left, and Gabriel has a strong tendancy to slide directly into the trigger. This is why it's - again - recommended that your high jump is started from only one jump. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ6HqHEou5c "Without his relics, Gabriel would never be able to exit the Bones Forest." 9-2: Woes Moor "Up to that moment, Gabried had found no trace of the three scarecrows inside the abandoned town." Sequence break: skipping the entire puzzle Your first step is to go out of bounds. That can be done pretty conveniently at the Baba Yaga's hut for example - a medium-sized high jump is enough. Then, while roaming out of bounds, you'll see the keys floating beneath the map. Go and fetch them. After collecting them all, retry from checkpoint and you'll appear back on ground level... then just return to Baba Yaga. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration: 1, findlestick's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmX2ZHM_nR4 "Although they were mainly made of wood, the scarecrows turned out to be formidable opponents." Speed strat: you can deal required 1000 damage to a Scarecrow extremely quickly by Light Flash stunning them, then Ultimate Shadowing them just once. "The flocks of crows that flew around the town were the key to awakening the remaining scarecrows in the town." Wasted potential: it seems impossible to break out of the post-Scarecrow battle unskippable cutscenes using Dark Crystal. Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross break out of the key picking animation, saving miniscule amounts of time. Other: there's a flock of crows you never have to move during the third phase of the puzzle. If you go and attempt anyway, the camera may glitch up when Gabriel grabs onto the pole they're perched on. "Baba Yaga was impatient for her keys, so Gabriel raced towards her cabin once he had got them." 9-3: The Music Box "The Treacherous golden corridors of the music box were filled with traps no bigger than a thimble, but still deadly." Speed strat: you can Holy Cross break out of the Cylinder picking up animations, saving a little time. Maybe. Sequence break: skipping Red Cylinder Using long jump, you can get over the chasms without the need for the Red Cylinder. Doing this is faster both in that you needn't pick up the Red Cylinder at all, and also there's less waiting at the other traps. And you actually get the red cylinder automatically if you skip straight ahead to the Magenta Cylinder. First there's a graphical glitch which makes the Red Cylinder invisible, but retrying from checkpoint, everything is as if you never skipped it. (c: AKheon) Video demonstration: 1, AKheon's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vstmHRW34hE Other: if you skipped the red cylinder (and don't restart at some point) you sometimes see two green cylinders inside the mechanism, after you've shuffle them. This is not just graphical, but both greens function as greens do. Wasted potential (early blue cylinder): if you skipped the red cylinder (and got the magenta by long jumping across the chasms), it's possible to make the blue cylinder appear in the mechanism right away by doing the following. Swap the green cylinder with the "blank cylinder" (you'll see red appear in the 1st spot), then swap magenta with blank and then swap red with blank. The blue cylinder will magically appear in the 1st spot, and it functions as it should, but the price you pay for getting the blue cylinder early is that the magenta cylinder vanishes. It re-appears on restart, but then you lose the blue. There may still be something that can be done with all of this...I think I recall seeing an early yellow during an early test, but can't confirm it at this date. Other: if you got the magenta cylinder early, then randomly start swapping cylinders around. You'll end up with a situation where all the cylinders will become blank (with two of them graphically glitched). You can even make the music box "play" the blank cylinders. Nothing happens except you see a white scroll play at the bottom of the screen with the timer counting down. It's unsure if the blank cylinder activates any of the unseeable traps in the Music Box (though it seems unlikely). Other: if you skipped the red earlier and restarted, in order to correct the colour glitches mentioned above. The tilting platforms that belong to the red cylinder can sometimes become chaotic and unpredictable if activated, which is undesirable for a speedrunner. Wasted potential: you can drop out of bounds through the chasms here, but the out of bounds floor is too far below that you could jump back up again. It's unknown if you could activate the level finish prompt from under the level... Strategy: having troubles with the flame spouts and electric traps? Simply use the Shoulder Charge to zoom through the trap at the first instant where there's nothing damaging in front of you. "With each successive music cylinder, the blue rose moved closer and closer." 10-1: Titan Graveyard "A deadly mist lay like a mantle over the cemetery of Titans, leaving only a few small areas untouched." Speed strat: at the start, you can skip a little climbing by doing a high jump from the starting spot. After a massive high jump, you are able to hit the rappel jump far above. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid of this and other tricks of this level http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOPHsGTV1ck Speed strat: after climbing out from the cave and watching the scenic cutscene, you can do a backwards double jump from on top of the cliff and reach the lower areas without climbing this way. It's also possible to drop past the death collision, this is done by jumping to the right, dropping a little and then doing a direct air attack. If done correctly, Gabriel will quickly end up on the ground below unscathed. (c: satvara & findlestick) Video demonstration (going over the death collision): 1, see the above vid Other: Just an obsolete alternative route through the area. After reaching the place where you fight the first Skeletons and Creeping Corpses, you can jump to the higher platform where there are Creeping Coffins using a Gauntlet high jump. The cliff to the back-right is low enough for this. If there are enemies around, targeting with Landslide Punch is a nightmare, but fortunately you can avoid triggering the fight completely by approaching the correct spot from the far right side. "Undead corpses lurked underground, replacing any destroyed floating heads as they fell." "The coffins scattered over the carcass of the Titan rose up and attacked Gabriel as he reached the area." Sequence break: skipping Creeping Coffin fight You can jump out of the first Creeping Coffin fight using a small high jump and some Holy Waters to land on the invisible wall to the back of the arena. From there, double jump onward... The extended Titan hand is already there, albeit invisible. You can use it to get to the second area, just like that. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw Wasted potential: you can Holy Cross break-out of the rune insertion scene, but it doesn't really help because the next scene is timed to happen at a certain time afterwards regardless you're free to move or not. Also, the time you have available is scantly not enough to glitch up the cutscene with Dark Crystal. Same applies to all occasions of using those keys in this level. "The piece of the Magic Rune gave the Titan enough energy to perform one last move, which Gabriel used to advance." Sequence break: skipping keys Original strategy to skip the keys was like this. At the screen where you insert two last keys, you can do high jump in conjunction with Guillotine to repeatedly launch yourself up the wall to the far left. After getting over that, the next step is getting over another similar wall outside clear camera view (since rocks block the view) to finally get roughly to where the invisible Titan hand leading you to the exit is. Thankfully a normal Gauntlet high jump quite reliably gets you on top of it (while remaining out of bounds), if you find the correct position near the ground level as far back as you can go. Then, last challenge. From the side of the arm, a Sprint jump towards an invisible point to where the hand would extend to to hit the Mission Cleared- trigger. (c: satvara) As a questionable improvement to this strategy, you could use Ultimate Light to get around the invisible collisions here. Going to the small shoreline around the back of the place where you insert the keys allows you to jump over a lower invisible wall instead of normal, maybe being faster. Also, I think there's some precise spot where you can climb from the swamp straight "inside" the cliff, so that you actually skip one of the jumps altogether. So, if executed well, this tactic could be faster than satvara's original method... but it drains Light magic in the process, up to half a bar. And it is overall obsolete this day anyways. (c: AKheon) The newest, fastest version does a small high jump from the opposite side instead, where the Titan's left arm lay useless at the moment and where you'd normally climb to the end of the level after fetching and using the keys. Just a medium-sized high jump ending with Avalanche Punch to fall on top of the floor close to where the invisible Titan arm extends. Don't start too close to the walls or some invisible ceiling may block your jump. Also, it's recommended to destroy the two objects nearby to stop Avalanche Punch from auto-targeting those. From the top of the arm, a backwards double jump to the correct direction and the level is finished. If done optimally, this strategy doesn't even expend any Holy Water. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid of the original strategy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw 2, satvara's vid of the newest high jump tactic (at around 0:30) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOPHsGTV1ck Collision flaw: doing a small high jump against the Titan arm leading to the exit from the front, it's possible to end up falling out of bounds. (c: LegendK7II3r) Video demonstration: 1, LegendK7II3r's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lWRgS7lEII "Another Titan was awakened from eternal slumber to carry out one last duty for Gabriel." 10-2: Fire Pinnacle "As soon as the fight started, Pan drained all Gabriel's magic energy." "Pan restored the flow of Light Magic, allowing Gabriel to regain health by attacking him." "Gabriel realized that he was not the only one with control over Light and Shadow magic energy." 10-3: Fire Cemetary "Using his acrobatic skills, Gabriel crossed the chasms inside the cemetery canyon." Sequence break: skipping Chupacabara There are a few known ways to skip the Chupacabra's mirror puzzle in this area. The first is satvara's method which involves doing a high jump to the right (slightly diagonally North-East) of the Chupacabra's cutscene trigger. There is a tiny piece of collision there that you can stand on, it's tricky to find but you'll know you're on it when Gabriel's enters his 'falling' animation while staying in the same spot. Anyhow, when you get high enough over it you can do a Guillotine attack on it to then stand and jump over the Chupacabra's cutscene (I recommend jumping forward and slightly right over the trigger). Skipping the trigger lets you keep all your Relics, thus you can simply go & hit the two mirrors and complete the level in record time. Findlestick's latest alternative involves doing a speedy Shoulder Charge jump over the chasm. If you succeed in it well and have enough momentum, you're high enough at the other side to get on top of the invisible walls with a smaller high jump than usual, speeding things up further. Or you can save your second jump during this technique, in order to do a backwards double jump over both cutscene triggers. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid (Original version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmUtYA-Un8 2, findle's faster version 3 (involving Charged Jump & minus Guillotine) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ZOO2jM2vk Other: it's possible to activate both cutscene triggers at the same time while trying to skip over them. This results in just one cutscene playing, but then Gabriel gets totally stuck in place until restart. Other: allegedly, by doing things in a wrong order here - opening the exit and only then activating the Chupacabra sequence - you can lose all your powers and then exit the level. This causes Gabriel to lose all his relics and the game saves it. Good for challenge runs, maybe? (c: corneliab) "The Chupacabras laughed at Gabriel from the relative safety of the magic cage." "Once he got back his Relics and powers, Gabriel could continue heading for the crematory oven ahead of him." 10-4: Crematory Oven "The Gravedigger summoned a number of creeping corpses, which proceeded to attack Gabriel." Speed strategy: using Holy Water, you can destroy all the Creeping Corpses before they even turn into Creeping Coffins, making this fight merely few seconds long. "The Gravedigger and Gabriel exchanged blows in front of the massive iron doors of the oven." Wasted potential: if you sprint and double-jump through the Grave Digger appearance trigger, you momentarily go through the trigger undetected. It's like there is some sort of collision there that makes Gabriel "zip" during his double jump, which might be the reason for this glitch. If you then quickly continue pressing jump, you can lengthen the delay of the cutscene trigger, thus you can make it all the way to the open exit door without the cutscene playing. But there is an invisible wall preventing you from going through the door. You can also make it all the way to the mechanism that opens the door. But the moment you stop jumping during this cutscene-delay glitch, the cutscene will quickly start to play. So I haven't yet been able to activate a Dark Crystal, nor start the grab-prompt to activate the door mechanism before the cutscene starts, to see how that affects the game. Sequence break: skip Gravedigger After Gravedigger appears, wait on the collapsing bridge for a moment. When the bridge has only one stone left, run off it to the actual fighting arena. Retry from checkpoint when you can, and do a minor high jump towards the screen to get out of the battle arena. From there get Gabriel to double jump under an invisible wall to the right and use a couple of water bombs to land on a small ledge attached to the arena. Then do a double backwards long jump in the general direction of the far right of where the exit door is. If you manage to not hit any of the plentiful death collision that's all around, you'll end up walking on a large floor below the battle arena. While down there, walk towards some cylindrical collision until the camera angle changes, showing you a grapple point. Grab the grapple & proceed to climb up towards the end of the level. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHC_H1yww6E "Gabriel looked down at the swelling pool of molten metal, and continued climbing through the debris." 11-1: Necromancer's Abyss "Gabriel approached the mysterious device at the entrance to the Necromancer Abyss." Sequence break: skipping the Zodiac puzzle Just do a high jump over the invisible wall in the way. (c: satvara) Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid of this and other tricks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QM_LPWOVC0 "The artificial eclipse had opened the path for Gabriel, but another obstacle hindered any further progress." Wasted potential: it seems very arduous to skip the plate puzzle. You can jump on top of the invisible wall on either side the side, and from there jump on some floor above the doorway... but there's still some high invisible wall in front of you. You can also try to go from the left side, but you apparently can't get close enough to the warp point that you could hit it and get back in bounds. "The Necromancer towers were filled with magic teleports that allowed Gabriel to travel quickly between them." Wasted potential: if you Holy Cross breakout of the mirror activations, the camera glitches up a little and Gabriel is animationless, but nothing else happens. Other: unlike in the other levels of the game, here there's an invisible "safety net" at the bottom of every chasm, and upon touching it the game teleports you back to the nearest ground level with a yellow flash and no damage taken. However, by doing Guillotine (and maybe other similar air attacks), Gabriel may actually fall through the safety net, momentarily scathing it as if it was ground. After that you fall into a pit like normal. "The Necromancers were one of the most powerful foes that Gabriel had encountered in his journey." Sequence break: skip fighting Necromancer and most of the level (V2) Do a minor high jump from the platform at the mirror that normally takes you to the Necromancer battle (or from the closest moving platform to it). Gabriel will touch the teleport collision that belongs to the area above him. By touching the above teleport collision, the game thinks that you fell down from one of the upper areas, so the game transports Gabriel to the next area above. Then do another minor high jump to again touch more teleport collision above, thus taking Gabriel to the upper-most area. From there you can make your way to the mirror right of screen, that takes you to one of the switches that are required to activate the mirror that takes Gabriel to the 2nd Necromancer battle. Once you activate the switch, use the mirror nearby to go to the 1st Necromancer battle. From there it's just a matter of high jumping over the gate & activating the mirror on the other side, to get taken directly to the 2nd Necromancer battle. (c: findlestick) Video demonstration 1, sticklefind's vid (AKA findlestick) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjxxzqPhBE Sequence break: skip fighting Necromancer and most of the level (V1) Once the Necromancer fight starts, get to the right side of the exit gate. High jump on top of the invisible wall, and from there... with a properly positioned double jump, you have to jump or drop down to the switch area beneath you. Note that the camera is not cooperating because of the Necromancer fight is still going on, but the area is not hard to find. The switch area below is located roughly underneath the area that has a single mirror on the other side of the gate. Try do drop Gabriel out-of-bounds next to a coffin you see near the single mirror. Get to the switch area and activate the exit portal switch - the only switch that truly matters. After that, return to the Necromancer fighting arena and do the first part of the skip (jumping over the gate) again. Instead of dropping down, jump towards the center to reach the exit portal platform. Video demonstration: 1, see satvara's vid above (at "skipping the Zodiac puzzle") 11-2: The Dracolich "The Dracolich flew above the platform, launching fiery attacks with its breath every time it swept over." Other: if you try to high jump onto the Dracolich as it swoops Gabriel. The screen can suddenly go black with no sound, with a PS3 error showing (something like "Unexpected error"). You then need to restart the console, to fix it. Speed strat: Dracolich, like other large bosses, is suspectible to Dark Crystal damage. It lowers the health of all its runes to minimum, so that they destruct from only one hit. Sequence break: skipping Dracolich You can skip the entire "Colossus fight" section of this level! Run to the opposite side from where you start from, then jump on top of the medium-sized invisible wall, and from there backwards double jump to the final platform where the ground level Dracolich awaits to be damaged and mini-gamed to death. The hardest part in all this is turning around on the very thin invisible wall to be able to do the backwards double jump. (c: satvara) However, you can also just do a Shoulder Charge jump from on top of the invisible wall, saving a little time and making this phase of the trick easier. Finally, the last phase of the fight is not a big issue if you break a Dark Crystal and hit the boss just once. Video demonstration: 1, satvara's vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni1-isoMflc "Gabriel stuck the cross in the bleached bone of the Dracolich to prevent himself from falling down." 12-1: Final Fight "Gabriel and Satan stuggled ferociously, their weapons clashing together with blasts of Light and Shadow energy." "The Lord of Demons shielded himself behind a row of magical barriers and stood still, trying to regain his breath." Other: apparently the crystal seems useless against Satan, it seems to deal no damage... 4. Contact info & credits, etc. ----------------------------------------- ==================================== Copyright � 2013 Hannu Ratilainen All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html#SEC1 All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Newest version of this guide will always be at GameFAQs, so check there if you're not certain. ==================================== For contacting, try the Youtube-accounts of either author. http://www.youtube.com/user/AKheon http://www.youtube.com/user/findlestick Additional thanks (and links): Satvara - for finding many, many crazy skips for this game. http://www.youtube.com/user/satvara FIN