New York City, NY, USAWhat I mean by that is, if Kenai is on one end of a level, and Koda on another, swapping bears moves the camera which pans across to meet the other bear. While the camera is panning, you can move immediately. And if you move immediately and pass an actor that is off camera, that actor is unloaded until it IS on camera.
This means that the distance between bears can be used to help one bear skip an obstacle, such as an elephant spraying water. (It's also worth noting that the water hitbox is only the fat end of it, not the shaft.
In Ice Cave 1 - Phase 2, Moving Koda to the elephant with Kenai at the beginning allows you to swap bears twice to pass the elephant, without needing Kenai to push the water spout. Likewise this can be done at the end of the level as well to get Kenai past the elephant faster.
It's a bit unclear in the rules and especially hard to judge when the final level ends with a skippable cutscene. Sometimes I accidentally skip it myself.
The run ends with you touching the goal of mountain chase, the screen fading to black, and then 3 frames later the cutscene starts (the first frame of it appears). So if you're like me and trigger happy with cutscene skips, you can re-time by looking for the first pitch-black screen, then advance 3 frames in your video.
as long as you swap when Kenai is climbing the first ledge, swap once Kenai drops the boulder, get Koda across the gap first, and swap after cutting the rope, it works out perfectly
