I know the video is a bit lacking in info/context regarding what's going on, but that's kinda on purpose. the work is far from done (for this skip), but I've stopped recording and quickly put together what you see, because the new strat proved to be faster than the normal route. this is obviously far from perfect, so the new strat can be optimized further, or maybe another route exists, to reach the same checkpoint, or another one farther down the path (with or without death warp) who knows!? ... so, I encourage everyone to try it on your own even if you don't make it faster than normal right away

context for the new route:

• • climb the jetbox and drop next to it, to get as far into the foreground as possible
• (unfortunately this is not enough to go right straight away)
• • tap walk left as fast as possible, but staying enough into the foreground to reach a certain ledge
• • climb down the invisible ledge and do a pushback into the foreground as fast and far as possible
• • tap walk right fast, and stay enough into the foreground to reach the ledge on the right side of the jetbox
• • once you drop, hold left and swim to the next checkpoint trigger (needs practice to get it right)
• • when respawning with the submersible next to the button, the dolphin jump seems to be the fastest strat

GL

it's been a while, but we finally have something new to work with .... here's a NEW strat for the "boxes & lift" puzzle \o/ ... It saves roughly 0.5 sec (regardless of the outcome) ... Video shows the Full Comparison

NEW Piston Cycle \o/ ... You can manipulate the trigger and get a different cycle, which ends up faster than normal by almost 2 seconds. Full COMPARISON in the second part of the video (Normal VS NEW piston - with visualization of the piston behavior for both strats). NOTE that the early piston can still be done, but it becomes much harder with the new cycle.

At the end of the underwater cutscene, it is possible to exploit the load-chapter system, since the kid triggers the next checkpoint on his way down, and this way it is possible to reach the turbine sooner and potentially get the early cycle (NOTE: this strat is NOT valid/legal in speedruns ... yet)

Video Comparison: NORMAL (best & worst turbine) vs EXPLOIT (1 cycle & bail out)

• The risky strat saves 20 sec compared to the fastest normal strat.
• The safe strat saves 4 sec ... and a death & respawn is 4 sec slower.

This video shows how to clip directly to Big Room and skip the elevator movement completely. The second part of the video shows a full comparison between FlingBox +Elevator +1boxPiston glitch VS BigRoomClip +minicave +ParSwitch.

Compared to a normal run, the BIgRoomClip saves over 40 seconds.

This is the full optimization of Dark route and Big room (single segment):

Compared to the best Dark route segments ever posted on the leaderboard, this new optimization can save 2 full piston cycles (over 20 seconds skip)... also, just for fun, I included the most optimal big room possible (in theory) and it could save up to 1 minute overall, when getting first try 1BoxPiston glitch (see the end of the video).

MDS Step Off (guide):

1. Send elevator up and immediately go to the right;
2. Turn LEFT and get picked up by the freaks;
3. Tap JUMP, tap LEFT then tap JUMP again (to cancel the step off); [ tapping jump before any other input is necessary only in the elevator, otherwise you drop straight down ]
4. Hold RIGHT to step off towards the door; [ step 3 and 4 are necessary to make sure you'll get pushed towards the foreground ]
5. Wait for the boy to reach the floor, then tap LEFT and get picked up;
6. Tap JUMP, and hold RIGHT;

• Repeat step 5 and 6 until the elevator stop;
• Repeat step 5 and 6 without the JUMP input, all the way to the pressure plate;

7. On the pressure plate, alternate between left and right step offs;
8. When you're far enough into the foreground, step off towards the door;
9. Continue the RIGHT step offs into the door until you pass it.

only took be 5 years :P but here's the early gun and early piston cycle I was talking about :

Guide:

1. Climb on top of the Scaffold by only holding UP;
2. Slow-walk on top using very short TAPS right;
3. Climb DOWN into a dangle, without any other input, and wait;
4. When the head looks up, drop DOWN and survive. (this is when the character is at the lowest position during the dangle, you can only survive the drop at this moment)

this issue has been resolved . a decision has been made : the title screen MUST be fully visible before starting a run ... case closed :)

UPDATE: Fast Version with Full segment video + Inputs Guide

Here's the same strat applied to the Orbs category. It can save at least 2 shockwave cycles.

This video shows the NEW Mine Door Skip using the freak pushback. It can save over 1 minute in comparison with Minecart skip (previous best strat).

As soon as I figured out Water skip , I immediately knew that we could skip the big cart in the Mine using the same freaks pickup glitch ... and here it is \o/ not only possible , but also consistent ... but this particular skip is more complex , because it involves another position manipulation using the cart itself - the trick is to do a few walk-offs with late cancels next to the cart , and for some reason the position of the kid goes higher and higher , and eventually you can reach the top ledge .

This skip saves ~20seconds compared to the normal way . It was found by accident by a casual player ( here's the clip : ) , but with the effort of our speedrunning community we managed to figure it out and make it consistent \o/

The idea behind this skip is that the position of the character is a bit higher after you perform a certain cancel drop from the hands of the freaks ... which allows us to barely reach the button (thus skipping the need to lower the water and swim on the ceiling)

this video shows that you don't need to exit the game in order to get the Fuse Glitch in Hospital ... by not accessing the Main Menu beforehand, and going on a slightly different route than the quitting method

IMPORTANT NOTE : I didn't have room to explain the last step properly ... the reason you have to switch direction (tap left) before you release the body is because that way you instantly let go of the body, as opposed to just releasing grab, which has a very long animation of the kid laying down the body and then walking off ... so a quick tap in the opposite direction where you pull -then releasing grab- is the fastest way to let go of the body and instantly be free (to fall safely on the other side of the door) ...

now there's a guide for this strat ... sorry it took a while to make, but here it is

you can find this in "Guides" too : https://www.speedrun.com/inside/guide/5yg4s

A while back I posted a video of a potential big skip in the Mine ... by using the dead body and a group of freaks you can do a certain ghost grab and manipulate both the elevator and the dead body simultaneously ... here's the full video :

but recently I tried this idea again , and I was able to survive on the other side of the door ... this video shows how the "NecroMineSkip" works , and the outcome after skipping the door :

this skip saves up to ~3min compared to a normal Mine run (and if it happens to fail, a second try can also save time, about ~1min)