The main focus of this thread is for the Any% walking/running route betwen lasers (everything before mountain)

I tested ~20 different routes, and even though some of them were definitely longer than the current Any% route, it did lead me to a few unexpected ideas that might be helpful further ... I want to post here everything I researched and found, in hopes that it might be helpful later on...

RESEARCH I'll start off with the research I did before testing alternative routes. Here are all the laser trigger times and the walking distance (time) from each of them:

Jungle LASER laser trigger: 61sec walk to mountain top: 37sec (walk from jungle laser > desert-redirect-panel in town > to mountain top: 97sec)

Bunker LASER elevator from buttom level to surface: 69sec walk from buttom level to elevator surface: 25sec laser trigger: 66sec walk to mountain top: 28sec

Swamp LASER: laser trigger: 53sec walk to mountain top: 40sec

Keep LASER laser trigger: 47sec walk to mountain top: 72sec

Shadows LASER laser trigger: 53sec walk to mountain top: 56sec

Town LASER laser trigger: 51sec walk to mountain top:70sec

Monastery LASER laser trigger: 53sec walk to mountain top:53sec

Desert LASER (needs redirect panel in town) laser trigger: 58sec exit elevevator at surface: 14s walk to mountain top: 14+82=96sec redirect panel in town rotation: 21sec Desert laser > Town panel redirection > mountain top: 14+94=108sec

ROUTING Here's a list of the routes I set out to test:

Current main Any% route: (<town)-Shadows-Keep-Town-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp

Right town first (v1), ccw: [+20sec] (town>)-(monastery)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows-Town-Monastery

Right town first (v2), ccw: [+14sec] (town>>)-(monastery)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows-Town-Monastery

Desert 1st (v1), (no Bunker), cw: [+16sec] Desert-Shadows-Keep-Town-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Swamp

Desert 1st (v2), (no Bunker), cw: [+39sec] Desert-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Town-(monastery)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Monastery

Desert 1st, Bunker last (no Town, only redirect panel): [??sec] Desert-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-(town.redir)

Desert middle (no Bunker), ccw: [+32sec] (town>>)-(monastery)-(s1)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Swamp-Keep-Shadows-Desert-Town-Monastery

Main cw (v1): [+19sec] (<town>)-(monastery)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-Jungle^-Monastery (^snipe through its backdoor)

Main cw (v2): [+33sec] (<town>)-(monastery)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-(wall)-Jungle-Monastery

Main cw (v3): [+40sec] (<town>)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-(^)-(wall)-Jungle-Monastery (^snipe monastery backdoor from jungle shortcut)

Jungle end (v1), cw: [+13sec] (<town>)-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-Jungle^ (^snipe through backdoor)

Jungle end (v2), cw: [+3sec] O_o pretty close (<town>)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Monastery^-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-Jungle^^ (^exit through backdoor)(^^snipe through backdoor)

Jungle end (v3), cw: [+16sec] (<town>)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-Monastery*-Town-Shadows-Keep-Swamp-Bunker-(wall)-Jungle (*exit through backdoor)

Shadows last (v1), ccw: [0sec] \o/ :O :O :O BEST Town-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows

Shadows last (v2), ccw: [+10sec] hmmm Town-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-Monastery^-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows (^exit through backdoor)

Shadows last (v3), ccw: [+6sec] -,- good try (<town>)-Monastery^-Town-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows (^exit through backdoor)

Shadows last (v4), ccw: [+3sec] o_O pretty close (town>)-Monastery^-Town-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Bunker-Swamp-Keep-Shadows (^exit through backdoor)

Shadows last, criss-cross: [+18sec] Town-Monastery-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Jungle-Swamp-Bunker-Keep-Shadows

Bunker last, cw: [??sec] (<town>)-(s1)-(bunker)-(s2)-(wall)-Monastery^-Town-Shadows-Keep-Jungle^^-Swamp-Bunker (^exit through backdoor)(^^snipe through backdoor)

The notations used:

• anything in paranthesis means solving panels in that area but not triggering the laser yet
• anything capitalized means triggering the area laser
• (<town) = solve only the left side of the town as you approach from tutorial
• (town>) = solve only the right side of town as you approch from tutorial, but no town snipe
• (<town>) = solve left and right of the town tower, but not the town snipe
• (s1) and (s2) are the upper and lower rows of sound panels in Jungle
• (wall) = the skip over the raising wall that suports the sound dots panels in Jungle
• cw = clockwise ; ccw = counter clockwise

Case study Shadows last (v1) ccw -20sec Town-Beige panel to Shadows laser -19sec Keep entrance to Town-Snipe spot +9sec Town-Beige panel to Town-Snipe +27sec Swamp Laser to Keep entrance +56sec Walk from Shadow laser to mountain top ... (^ because Shadows laser full activation is only +53sec) -53sec Swamp laser full activation ... (normal route last laser time activation) 0 TOTAL TIME DIFFERENCE \o/

So to be precise, the CCW route is ~20 seconds slower at the 7th laser, but no longer loses time because the climb up to the mountain is faster.

Case study : I know this one might seem hard to follow, but it's a very interesting case ... some of the things in this route are surprisingly fast (for ex: taking the monastery exit through the backdoor to reach the town snipe) small things like that can optimize the route so much ... but in the end it's the time of the Jungle laser itself that makes this route slower, otherwise it would have been faster than the current route. Take a look:

Jungle end (v2) cw: +6sec Town-Beige panel to Town multiplanel entrance +11sec Jungle Dots wall (solve position) to Low Monastery steps (corner towards town) +5sec Monastery Laser -going through backdoor- to first corner of monastery walls next to town +6sec Town tower base door to Bridge towards shadows/keep +14sec Keep entrance to Swamp entrance +8sec Swamp Laser to Swamp Laser shortcut door -8sec Town-Beige panel to Bridge towards shadows/keep -14sec Keep entrance to first corner of monastery walls next to town -6sec Swamp entrance to Swamp Laser shortcut door -10sec Monastery laser to Low Monastery steps (corner towards town) -3sec Town multiplanel entrance to Town tower entrance -12sec Jungle Dots wall (solve position) to Jungle laser (through jungle maze, to backdoor) +61sec Jungle laser full activation (because walk from Jungle laser to mountain top is only +37s) -53sec Swamp laser full activation (the normal route last laser time activation)

+5sec TIME DIFFERENCE :(