Q: When running the shorter categories outside of album/YOLO arcade, can I quit to menu between the end of the level and the level exit to skip the level exit animation? A: In Any% itself, yes. Per the rules:

[quote=mods]Quitting a level after it has been completed but before it ends naturally is permitted: on fresh saves, the level is complete if the next level unlocks, and on pre-existing saves, the level is complete once the rank text begins to show.[/quote]

This tech had previously been banned, but it had already been in use before then, and we forgot to check that when we banned it, so for consistency and on principle it has been unbanned.

THIS IS NO LONGER TRUE, SEE UPDATED POST

This question has come up a few times on the Discord, but I want to write it down here so it's easier to find:

Q: When running the shorter categories outside of album/YOLO arcade, can I quit to menu between the end of the level and the level exit to skip the level exit animation? A: In Any% and Any% (No Death Skips) and All Cutscenes, no, the level doesn't count as complete until the level exit.

This tech is allowed in All Riddles and 100%, because those categories are always run on a fresh file, and therefore it's obvious if the level was quit too early (because progression will be blocked if the level didn't end). However, in Any% etc, it's less clear whether the level actually ended or not. We could define an end-of-level cutoff based on what the game shows and then step through each run's level ends frame-by-frame to make sure that all the levels reach that point, but we came to the conclusion that it's simpler for both moderators and runners if we close that grey area and disallow this tech in categories where it creates ambiguity.