Updated Jan 2025
New route now let's us get sub 50 RTA. Combination of Regalia Skip, Ifrit Skip, and becoming overpowered from the Weapon Swap Glitch. Let's see how.
First ~5 min of the game is much of the same. Start the New Game on Normal, timer starting on No to Tutorial. Sprint (L3) and Jump (X) forward (up on L stick) in the Ifrit fight 8 times to start the cutscene. Pushing the car, rotate the camera such that it's facing the front bumper, close to the ground - this saves a few seconds on loadtime. Do run the game at 120fps on Low settings or lower to save even more loadtime.
Jump once through the boys to speak to Cindy (O). Rotate the camera 180 and jump twice to the Weapon Shop Guy, speak, cancel out (X) immediately, and return to Cindy. Speak to her, Ask Friends option, and mash through Gladio dialogoe. Free 10 AP.
Menu:
Noctis gets Blazefire on Left, Ragnarok on Right, Mage Mashers on Bottom, Tech Turbocharged as Accesory, and Royal Raiment as Attire. 3 boys get Exosuits and 1 of the 3 Fanfares. Back out the menu, finish listening to Cindy, and off we go.
Start by hopping up the big rock in front of you, grabbing the Megalizir on top (picking up items in 1st person mode cancels the animation). Proceed to the 4-Scorpion fight, completing the miniquest for an extra 10 AP. Deal the required 5 hits with the Mage Mashers, and finish by warping to the top of the pillar to replenish all your MP.
Now instead of going for the next Scorpions, we're going bunny hopping West, towards the right side of the Adamantoise rock. The fastest method of MP-less travelling, use this for ground movement when you aren't warping via daggers. You will expect random Sabertusk spawns in your journey - feel free to defeat them for extra AP (Ragnarok Warpstrike, as well as another miniquest on Warpstrike for an additional 10 AP). At the end of each battle, or even if you hop on by a group, try to reach a warp point in front of you to regain MP and forward distance.
Beside the big rock tucked into a corner is a Mega Phoenix - mandatory pick up. Continue bunny hopping to the cliff face, where the pipe fixtures are.
Time for Zero Camera Bug (ZCB). I go from 120 fps to 60fps, but you can go to 30 if you need the extra bonus time to deload the game. This trick removes invisible walls, letting us go Out of Bounds. Take any Photo to have 1 in your Gallery.
Facing the rockface, 1st-person mode, holding forward the whole time (L-stick), jump (X), Quick Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), cancel(X), Pause Menu (Options) [the map should be zoomed out in the background, showing the Disc of Cauthess], resume (O), Quick Menu, confirm, Gallery (Δ), cancel, Gallery again [you should now see a Loading icon in the bottom right], cancel twice, and after a few seconds, the world reloads and you should be above the rockface.
You'll have to repeat the ZCB 3 more times to cross more invisible walls in this area. Again, if you're learning, do it by switching from 120 to 30fps, but it can be done exclusively on 60fps.
Once at the other side, approaching the non-tree'd spot, has a high chance of spawning more Tusk enemies. Your party will automatically appear here in-bounds once the battle starts. In order to get Noctis back in bounds, wielding your Ragnarok, jump and attack the air, while having the Tech Bar triggered (L2). There should be a brief flash midair showing you can trigger a Tech, and following through the attack will bring you back on normal ground.
Proceed out of the battle directly downwards to the little wooden tent. Grab the Megalixir inside. Hop on over to Wiz Weapon Shop:
Sell: 1 Phoenix Down, 2 Megalixirs
Buy: 1 Airstep Sword, 1 Garnet Bracelet, 4 Kite Shields
Go to Wiz for a cutscene and accept the Behemoth Hunt. Go left and get the Camera Strap, and to the Wiz Item Shop to buy 2 Elixirs.
Menu:
Unlock Iggy's Enhancement and Chain Boost (first ability right of 1st ascension grid, 10ap cost).
Gear: Ignis replaces Mark with Enhancement, Noct replaces Engine Blade with Airstep Sword
Bunny hop and Airstep warp along the right side of the dungeon rocks. There is a small cliff step you can stand on, and while facing the inside of the dungeon, ZCB your way in (this invisible wall is the thinnest of them all, so I do this at 120 fps without opening the Gallery multiple times).
Once on top of the rocks, continue North, and at the end of the maze just before the Fire deposit, fall into the little rock corner near the shimmy spot to activate Gladio's dialogue, which spawns the boss. ZCB into the dungeon.
Once you're near Behemoth and see the camera shift, dodge roll (▢) twice, jump, and spam Airstep sword warping (~4 times), and ocne you can lock on to Behemoth, warp strike him via Ragnarok, starting the fight. Because we glitched into the dungeon, the boss will not attack you. However, Noctis has no L-stick movement available. Give him a few slashes and then Enhancement. To boost your damage, target switch to Behemoth's back leg, and spam Riggy Warpstrikes. Elixir when out of MP (should not take more than 2).
Once defeated, switch to 1st person mode. Using the Take Camera option and moving the view with the R-stick, you can change direction, and dodge roll where you need to go. Grab the Broken Harmonica beside Behemoth's corpse, turn around, and Dodge Roll towards the normal dungeon exit, sliding through the tunnel, and dodge roll another ~7 times to get into the forest. You should now be able to Save. Do that and reload the file. Now you have full Noctis movement again.
Take the long trip back to Wiz, jump-warping. Sometimes you'll get into another Tusk spawn, so that's a free warp point ahead of you to abuse. Can force fun against the Garulas too. Once you get to Wiz, cutscene, Chocobos unlocked, rent a bird for 1 day. Return to Entrance.
Back in Hammerhead now, immedaitely head East towards the Cotisse Haven behind Hammerhead. We'll now try to trigger Active Menu Glitch without a Regalia. Wait to Morning. Make a safety save here if you life. Switch down to 30 fps. Wait to morning again. Walk backwards 3 steps. Return to Entrance.
If timed correctly, you'll see a Blue Box pop up during the loadscreen, followed by the loadbar at the bottom completing. You should have movement with the Box up on screen. Approach the Camper Door. Interact (O), Pause Menu, Items, Check, Sort (Δ), at this point the dialogue for sleeping for the first time at a trailer should show up, confirm twice, Yes, now back out fast, go to Map, and Icons [this is most successful when you hear party dialogue, as it delays the start of the Sleep long enough to perform your menuing].
If victorious, Icons will be a watermark, and you'll go through the sleep cutscenes in the background, but they are skippable/mashable. Go through them until back on the main world - everything should be blackened. Open Main Menu (Share), Map, this should clear the Icons, now back out twice, and now we have AMG.
Boost back up to 120fps. Walk on over to Takka. Eat the Jambalaya for that Attack Boost. Reverse and rent another bird for 1 day. Then hop over to the weapon shop.
Buy:
2 Avengers, 3 Handguns
Sell:
Go to weapons. Sort. Back out.
Buy:
4 2-Handed Greatswords
Hop on the bird, now we're going for a trot. Open up the Main Menu, and switch to 1st person mode, which allows us to menu while traversing through the map, deloading it thanks to AMG. Run south - you can sprint with the Chocobo's Square option by Sorting your Item list at the same time - repeat every ~5 seconds so you don't run out of stamina.
Hug the left side of the wall, where eventually you'll deload a clifface to run uphill and OoB again. Run through the mountains Eastward, and back out of the menu. Quick hesitation, then trot all the way to the beach. If your bird upgrades to Lv 2 or 3, clearthose boxes, they don't affect anything.
Menu:
Ascension -> 2 Accesories for Noctis
Ignis -> equip first Avenegers
Noctis -> Left weapon = Daggers, Right weapon = last Kite Shield, Bottom weapon = last Handgun
Accesories -> add on the Stamina Badge
Attire -> Exosuit
Once at the beachfront, dismount, Pause Menu, Save, choose a file and double tap confirm to both attempt to Save and Remount your bird, proceed running forward and swimming into the sea (look for the 3rd set of towers from the left of the city wall). Swim time is ~3 minutes. Once the terrain deloads, confirm the Save, back out of the Pause Menu, reopen it and Load the save.
If successful, we have wrong warpred to Ch14. Warp forward twice, wapr and replenish MP on the building, drop down and continue warping and hopping towards the Dark Flans. Can pop your last Elixir here if you're low on MP to warp through the walking-cutscene. Now, before the Ahriman fight, we'll be setting up the Weapon Swap Glitch:
Main Menu, Gear, you should see a list of names, walk into the cutscene trigger for the fight. Once playing, choose Noctis, choose the top weapon, R1 once to switch to Greatswords, Sort -> Yes, back out, go to Attire, choose top option Prince Fatigues, and when the screen becomes completely black, choose Exosuit.
If done correctly, your MP should now be ~270, and your daggers will now read Pain of the Vortex. Proceed to warpstrike spam with them against the enemies, now taking 1-2 hits to defeat. Warp to pillars to replenish MP, and finish the battle.
Post-fight, veer right and absord 1 Fire, Menu -> Elemanacy -> Make Fire x3 -> Store. Proceed to the door to the Basecamp with Cor.
Jump twice forward, get the Key, speak to Cor, hop up the escalator to Josef, get his quest, get back down to the vending machines.
Weapon Machine:
Sell -> 2 Behemoth Steaks, 1 Broken Harmonica, 1 Camera Strap, 3 2-Handed Greatswords, other items the enemy's dropped
Buy -> Hyperion
Item Machine:
Buy -> As many Ethers as possible
Head out and through the city to Cerberus. You can spam dagger warping for movement, and replish yourself with Ethers (will take about 4 to get to Cerb).
Against Cerberus, our broken daggers continue to be out main damage dealer. You'll get Enhancement off Ignis ASAP, and possibly one more time against the second phase.
Continue to Ifrit, hopping 11 times after the gate to the cutscene. Running forward, open up the Ascension menu. With the background cutscene playing, get the 3 nodes to the left-lower path (helps with MP replenishment while attacking). With any extra AP, get another Chain Boost Warp damage on the right brance.
Against Ifrit 1, simply warpstrike via Daggers and spawm attack (O) to deplete his HP midair. At 0 HP the cutscene automatically starts.
Ifrit 2 is what we want to skip. Using the Airstep Sword, head to the top left of the Citadel. Wait for Ifrit to warp to you. Let go of the wall, and hold attack to aircombo Ifrit until, while wiggling your directional stick, Noctis does a small flip in the air to gain height. Warp rightward towards the hole in the Citadel, and hold attack again. Noctis should retain his air height, trying to attack Ifrit. Continue with this method about 5 times, slowly gaining height and getting closer to the Throne Room. Once you see are in the corner, spam warp striking the wall, followed by a single attack, which maximizes your hieght retention. Look for a minimap change.
If successful, warp back out to original topleft point of the Citadel. Now dance in the air with Ifrit again, and hope that he joins you as you move in the air towards the Throne, as we want our party members to spawn inside that new map. Maximize the chance by letting Ifrit fight you in the corner, and having the camera face away from the Throne Room. Occassionally you have to swing the camera back to check if your party spawned in there. As soon as they did, use any of their Techs and follow-up to warp Noctis inside.
Small cutscene, now head over to the back door. Now return to little circular platform, attempting to lure Ignis over to you. Once there, try to warp up towards the hole, and find a warp point at the front of the Citadel. Warp to that, then warp away into the middle of the arena in the sky. Once Ifrit is close enough to you, Enhancement, which brings Noctis back to the Throne Room, deloaded but under the stairs. Partially OoB, walk left, and just beyond the small fence, jump and turning 90 degress, spam warp towards the lobby. If done fast, you'll retain enough height after 3 warps to clip into the hallway area.
Run down the corridor until the Exosuit light does out, and turn around.
Menu:
Items, Check, Sort, Yes.
Elemancy, cursor hovering on Fire, walk up to the Throne Room Entrance, circle twice (Blue Box + starts cutscene), Circle once (clears Blue Box), Square (swaps to Equipment menu), switch Daggers* for Mage Mashers, Shield for Ragnarok, Handgun for Blazefire. Tech Turbo and Stamina Badge for Amethyst and Garnet Bracelet, and Attire choose Prince Fatigue, which unequips it midcutscene. Back out of the menu, let it play out, Yeah, skip the Throne cutscene.
*In the WSG state, any single mistake in buying/selling/equipping can completely delete all your weapons. You've been warned.
Proceed forward, mini cutscene, head over to the edge of the hole. Quick Menu, Mega Phoenix yourself (I don't think Phoenix Down works), and when you hear the "pop", Main Menu, change Attire to Exosuit. Cancel menu, warp down.
Ignorning Ardyn, using Airstep Sword, warp to the top right of the Citadel Gate Entrance. North once, Southwest right once (into the corner), then keep warping South into the corner to gain height. About 10 air warps later, switch North, and try to warp out of bounds. If stuck in the corner above rubble, direction yourself Northwest, to get over an invisible bump via continued air warping. It's ok to run out of MP and just bunny hop beyond the rubble. Head over to the tower ahead of you and leftward, warping to the top. Speak to Cor. Start the sidequest.
This ages Noctis 10 years. Get the enemy's attention, but focus on inflicting damage to Ardyn when he's nearby. Equip and use your Hyperion. At around 60% HP, open up the Menu, and keep a Blue Box open from the Elemancy submenu. You need this open as the cutscene starts to enter phase 2 against Ardyn. Safety strats are to let Cor do the remaining damage to get you into the transition.
Once ths cutscene starts, clear the Blue Box, sqaure, switch Exosuit to an Attire with high Critical Hit rate (Casual no Jacket), choose any weapon, and when you enter the fighting part of phase 2, tilt the control stick backward, holding lock on (R1), press Triangle twice to Sort + Warpstrike spam. Holding onto this state will have a zoomed out camera and maximize the odds that you stunlock Ardyn.
Getting into Phase 3 cutscene, cancel the Sort blue box, but stay in the weapon menu. Once you enter the final fight, equip Hyperion to the top slot. Proceed to attack Ardyn with Cor. Ifrit is still around, but since we have a glitched Exosuit on, we don't take damage. On the incredibly unlikely chance Ifrit grabs you for a QTE event, don't press anythign and let it play out. After enough damage, and optionally trigger Lion's Roar for camera fun, final QTE against Ardyn. Good game.
Update May 2023
Final route developed to get Sub 1 RTA.
Loadless time is used on the leaderboard, but I gauge RTA more thoroughly. LiveSplit with OBS Studio used, recording on Windows 10 on FF15 PC; controller = DualShock4.
Settings involve having all Graphics on lowest, 120fps, camera speed on 5 (highest?), and X-O are switched (Cancel-Confirm).
Against Tutorial Ifrit, jump forward 9 times. You can walk any direction afterwards, but I like up right.
When moving the car, swing the camera to the front, to minimze the loadtime into the song.
Jump forward and 1st person mode then talk to Cindy.
After talk, jump backwards twice while swining the camera around to speak to the Weapon Shop, and cancel out via X twice.
Return to C, and mash between X and O to cancel the Map that pops up and speak immediately. Choose the right dialogue (2sec faster).
Menu auto appears, Ascension the Chained Fury (10AP), and Gear:
Noctis: left weapon = Sword, right weapon = Ragnarok, bottom weapon = Mage Mashers, Garb = Royal Raiment
3 boys gets Magitek Armor and Warfare Accesory.
Backing out, still in 1st person mode, jump 7 time to the big rock, and jump up it for the Megalixir. After picking it up, return to 3rd person (L3+R3), and jump/warp to the scorpions (do not get yourself into Stasis). Jump/warps to be done via Mage Mashers.
Once the first is defeated via Warpstrike Ragnarok, the other 3 are defeated by a jump and 3 hit air combo (3AC). Post-battle, warp to the big pillar to get a free MP refill.
Next set of 6 Scorpions, same idea. You no longer need to compelte the Battle Quests for MP. Warp to a rock, continue.
To the 8 Scorpions, same idea, though getting the 10AP from a Warpstrike Quest is optional. Post battle, take a Photo.
Jump/warp to the Table, and swap Raiment to Exosuit. For Sabertusk 1, all 3AC. For Sabertusks 2, jump and wiggle left to avoid the Ignis Grab, Warpstrike the 1st, then 3AC until the battle clears, and swap back to Raiment.
Dave's option is the default top dialogue. Jump left and warp under the shed, towards the rubble beside the barn. On top of the bar-wheel, jump and warp right to the shed subroof, jump right and, carefuly, line up and jump into the air, aiming for the water tower, holding square to stop from slipping off. Turn 180, and warp onto the bigroof. 1st person mode, get the Emerald Bracelet, then walk to the edge, and with 30+MP, warp twice, on top of the wheel. As falling, use your 1 Elixit, and pick up the Shiny.
Back in 3rd person, jumpwarp to Bloodhorn. Beast goes down in 2 warpstrikes from a pipe. 1st person, move towards the cliff to get some minerals, and grab them after the phonecall (top dualogue).
Return to Rest, and jump 11 times and O with Cindy. Top dialogue on both options. Auto Drive to Quest Location.
During this, Shop menu:
Sell: Megalixir, Bronze Bangle, all fishing gear, all food except 1 Sheep Milk, all minerals, Javelin, TwoHanded Sword, all Barbs+Tusks. The shiny you picked up can be sold, or saved for Magic Mixing in endgame, but I recommend it gets sold.
Buy 1 Elixir and 98 Sheep Milk.
When the Parking Icon appears, hold right during the drive so Ignis doesn't auto turn into the parking spot, but let go after the 2nd Icon appears to keep going straight to the Gate. Brake and get out with O when you are 2 white road lines away from the end of the road.
Jump and warp right to the wall. Zero Camera Bug (ZCB1*) to the top OoB area, and a jumpwarp to get yourself back down. Call Car. Manual Drive.
*Against the wall right of the blockade beyond Longwythe, jump (X), Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, wait for the Disc Speed to start decreasing (assuming 120fps), Cancel, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel, Gallery, Cancel x2. If you use the movement stick carefully (forward), you'll get OoB. Also possible to tilt backwards afterward still during the loadscreen to get onto the road beyond the blockade, but timing is tight.
The drive is two right turns only, but go past the Wiz parking spot, and brake+park. Warp once left with daggers, then once jumpwarp with Ragnarok, towards the Weapon Shop. Jump 4 times and buy an Airstep Sword. Jump backwards 4 times and get the autocutscene with Wiz.
Accept the Deadeye AND Exorcist Hunt, and wait to nightime. Return to Car. Talk to Car. Right dialogue (Take Over). Manual Drive. Once past the 2nd streetlamp, hold right, brake and park once you see the minimap has a small tree partly on the road. Menu:
Ascension -> Iggy's Enhancement
Gear: Noctis gets Fire over Engine Blade, and Airstep Sword over Blazefire, equip Emerald Bracelet, and Magitek Exosuit. Iggy equips Enhancement. All jump/wartps now done with Airstep Sword.
Go straight to the dungeon rocks, and climb up to the ZCB2* area. Sometimes you can warp to a nearby rock and get an MP refill.
*Against the invisble wall, on the rock edge, jump (X), Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, Cancel, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel, Gallery, Cancel x2. You should get OoB at 120 fps if you keep holding forward.
Jumpwarping right across the rocks, get ZCB3* after you trigger Gladio's dialogue on a nearby rock point.
*Against the invisible wall just beyond the skinny rock passage below you, Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, Change FPS down to 60, Cancel x2, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel, Gallery, Cancel x2. Should fall down into the corner.
Get 33 Fire, and go into the Deadeye fight. Use a Fire on the Barrel after a few seconds when he's on top of it, to get him susceptible to Fire-attacks. Use Enhancement, and Ragnarok Warp Strike do almost max damage. Lock on and do 1, warp backwards with Airstep Sword, do a 2nd Riggy Warpstrike, and warp to a tower to refill MP. Do this cycle about 4 times to win.
After the Refresh Symbol appears that Wiz's quest is completed, Quick Menu (R3) and Return to Car. Having the two hunts takes allows for this warp out of the dungeon.
In 1st person mode, perform the AMG*.
Facing the car in 1st person mode, perform a ZCB. During the loadscreen off the Gallery, back out twice and immediately Interact with the Regalia. If done properly, you'll see the Car Menu appear on the Loadscreen. Go into that Main Menu option and quickly swap Noct's Exosuit for Royal Raiment, and wait on the Elemeancy Blue Box.
Once hit, Circle once and L3+R3 to see the map again, and start hobbling back to Wiz. After escaping the battle area, Jump and Warp slowly for fastest movement, though sometimes you can get a warpoint for that free MP refill. It's dark, but aim for the lights in the distance. Once in the Wiz cutscene, confirm through all the blue boxes, and AMG is enabled.
Switching to 120FPS, buy 2 days of Chocobo, Return to Rest. Sleep at Trailer. Autosave generates, so Return to Title. DLC and Comrades. Back out of it's Title Screen, Watermark now gone, load the Autosave.
Jump left 3 times and buy Takka's Jambalaya. Walk out and Call Chocobo. In 1st person mode, Mount, and head East, towards the area where you push the car at the beginning of the game.
You can sprint by Triangle+Square in the Item menu. Aiming for a the mountain point, you'll be able to climb up the deloaded rock and through a small pathway through the mountains. Close the menu, and proceed to avoid the rough terrain in a beeline for the pointy sand coast.
While running, do some menuing:
Ascension: 2 more warp boosting abilities for Noctis, a 2nd Acc slot, and Powercraft. Gear: Remove and Discard Fire, Craft and remove Fires until you have 33 left in your inventory. Put Mage Mashers on top slot, and bottom one can be left open. Gladio gets Masamune and Ignis gets Gae Bolg.
Once at land's end, get off, Options and click Save twice on a file to get the Save Blue Box open while Mounitng the bird at the same time. Proceed movement forward. Once the map deloads, you can back out of the Options, reopen it, and Load the file you made in the middle of the deloaded ocean. You should now be in Insomnia.
TBC.
===
Updated APR 2023
More optimizations summarized below.
Right option choice, and once you get the 10 AP from Cindy:
Noct: Mage Mashers + Blazefire Sabre + Ragnarok + Engine Blade + Magitek Suit + Warrior's Fanfare Gladio: Key of Prosperity Iggy: Blitzer's Fanfare Prompto: Tactician's Fanfare
Can pick up the Metal Scrap on the way to the 4 Scorpions. No need to warp to Pillar until post battle. Just warpmove twice pre-battle, and if no MP, jump and 3AirAttack via Ragnarok. Auto-homing will push Noctis in the air toward the enemy.
Similar pattern for the 6 Scorpion and 8 Scorpion fights. All AP mini quests are optional, though the 8-battle is easiest to obtain. WarpPoint to rocks to regain MP if needed.
Same strat for next 2 Sabertusk fights. Against second fight, wiggle control stick a little left to avoid an Ignis Grab. Pick top option for Dave convo.
Jump left and under the shed, heaading for the rubble. At the highest point, jump and aim right, toward the dip of the metal barn rooflette. Again toward the water tower, but hold Square midair so Noct won't slide off. Do a 180 and jumpwarp onto the metal roof, grabbing the Emerald Bracelt. With an MP of 31+, warp twice, off the barn and once in midair, over the diagonal bar toward the Bloodhorn. There are 2 more shinies on the floor (one where you fall, one close the boss at the right), but optional.
At Bloodhorn, 2 Riggy warpstrikes from a distance. Pick up the 3 shiny ores if you want.
Auto Drive to Quest location, selling optional things, and buying 98 Sheep Milk.
ZCB1:
Against the wall right of the blockade beyond Longwythe, jump (X), Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, wait for the Disc Speed to start decreasing (assuming 120fps), Cancel, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel, Gallery, Cancel x2. If you use the movement stick carefully (forward), you'll get OoB. Also possible to tilt backwards afterward still during the loadscreen to get onto the road beyond the blockade, but timing is tight.
Once back on the road, Call Car, Manual Drive to Wiz Post, but park outside the parking spot. Buy Airstep Sword+Blade of Brenare. Accept Deadye and Exo Hunts. Return to Car.
Take Over Car, Man drive to gap between fences (staying away from lamposts). Exiting car, 2nd menu:
Acension: Iggy Enhancement Gear, Iggy gets Enh. Noct: Fire over Engine Blade, Airstep Sword over Blazefire. Emerald Bracelet.
Go down the bath from jump warping via Airstep Sword. On the rocks.
ZCB2:
Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, Cancel, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel x2. Shouold allow Noct to just slip through the invisible wall.
Jumpwarp rightward to the crevice before the Deadeye. Jump off the top of the highest rock, to hear the "All in a day's work" from Gladio, which loads in the fog and boss.
ZCB3:
Tact Menu (R2), Take Photo (O), Cancel (X), Options, Change FPS down to 60, Cancel x2, Tact Menu, Confirm (Circle), Gallery (Triangle), Cancel, Gallery, Cancel x2. Should fall down into the corner.
Grab 33 Fire. Go toward the cutscene, and dodge roll twice toward the boss. You should still get caught by Iggy. Use a Fire after a few seconds when Deadeye's paw is on the barrel, then the Tech Bar should be high enough for Enhancement.
Strat is to Riggy Warpstrike the Boss, then warp backwards with Airstep. Do this combo twice, before warping to one of the two towers to regain your MP. Keep the same combo going until dead (might take 4-5 cycles).
Once the Refresh Synbol appears, you should be able to open the Quick Menu with R3 to Return to Car, without leaving the dungeon.
At Car, do a ZCB still at 60 fps to do the AMG method, explained many times before. However, choose Main Menu once you see the Regalia, and swap Noct's Magitek for Royal Raiment. Once the enemy Red Bar shows up, choose Elemancy. Proceed with AMG steps, and run toward Wiz. AMG likely isn't triggered yet, so you can jumpwarp to the Wiz cutscene that happens after a Deadeye defeat. At that point, mash Confirm (Circle) to remove all those Blue Boxes, which should leave the watermark menu on screen and confirm AMG is triggered. Post-cutscene, jump to the nearby trailer and sleep.
Once awoken with an autosave, Return to Title, go to Comrades DLC (Offline Mode for Steam loads this fastest), and with the watermark removed, get back into your autosaved file.
Grab 1 Day of Chocobo. Camera Strap optional. Jumpwarp to the road in the distance behind Wiz Post. Call Car. Auto Drive to Lestallum Blockade by selecting Map Point and aiming at a point close to it.
Quickly, Sell what you haven't yet (Behemoth Steak etc.), should have ~7500 gil. Then go into the Main Menu, Items, on any List, open the Sort Blue Box. Eventually, Ignis will park and the camera will zoom way back to your spot.
If kicked out of Items menu, return to it. Watch out how much you Cancel, we still want this map deloaded. Head toward the gate from the right side along the grass, and hug the rock wall where there is a small rocky step. Now Cancel all menus.
After a load, you should be in an OoB zone. Jump and warp up the right roght and then again to the top. Follow along the cliffedge, beyond the blockade, and back down onto the road. Call Car. Manual drive to the middle of Lestallum.
Jump to the distant Chef, buying the Spicy Skewers. Tow Car.
Jump to the road, Call Chocobo. Jump on and AMG time to deload the map. Head toward the Esterleiden Blockade. Look at the edge below the mountains, there should be a traingle raised ground. Gently go up and over the rock edge, and through the alley between two mountains. Cancel out of the menus.
A bit more rocks here to dodge, but it's an easy straightaway to the same spot as every other swim to Insomnia. Since you have AMG, do some menuing while running, being sure to cancel back out often to realign yourself with the sea.
Ascension:
3 Warp Boost abilities 2nd Acc slot +Powercraft
Noct gets Tech Turbocharger too. Iggy gets Gae Bolg, Gladio gets Masamune, all 3 boys get Magitek Suits.
Once loaded into Insomnia, get the Blizz on the right, the one beside the Shelter, and one beneath the stairs in the middle, before the Mech fight. Down more stairs and left, do your Elemanacy menu during the sewer cutscene, 99Blizz+33Fire+99Milk. Equip it over the Fire.
Ahrimans will use 2 Spells, with 3 Riggy Warpstrike with a Pillar Warp to replenish MP. Repeat.
With Cor's sidequest, talk to Josef. Back down, transact the 2nd vending machine to sell Eyeballs and buy 20+ Ethers. Dagger warp movement with Ethers now, instead of Airstep Sword jumpwarps. Head toward Cerberus.
Same strats here for Cerb/Ifrit, but less warp points and more spamming Ethers. The food buff will grant you 9999 damage close up often. Top of Enhancement before the fight against Cerb ends. Use up the rest of your spells by the end of Ifrit 2.
Big skip time. Dumb down the FPS to 30. Once the Citadel Door is open, get the Tutorial Blue Box up, and walk into the cutscene. Once that Red Bar disappears, choose Yes. We now have an autosave in the Citadel, clearing all Kings of Yore flags, somehow.
Exit that Tutorial, touch the Elevator buttons, and go up. Return to 120fps. Noct equips the Amethyst Braclet over the Tech Turbo.
Do the usual AMG setup for Ardyn.
Once warped down for Ardyn 1, get him to about 70% HP, then head to the usual spot for the OoB. Let him kill you, Phoenix Down yourself, and pick that top right spot. Airstep Sword air warps require decent timing to maximize your height (at Lv9, you have about 128MP here, assuming same 4 weapons equippped like when we started), but it should be no more than 12 (2 to get to the corner, 10 to boost height from corner warping) used, before you turn backward and head for that OoB at the edge of the rubble and Citadel.
Once OoB, warp to the top of Cor's tower, equip a new garb (Casual Outfit No Jacket), speak to Cor, mash through the words, and engage battle with a Soldier in the Base. Focus damage on Ardyn 1 now. Try to get a Riggy Warp onto him from a distance for a high damage multiplier. When he seems to be at ~60% Health, open your Menu, Elemancy, and have the Discard Blue Box open.
Ardyn 2 transition should happen. Cancel out of the Blue Box. PRess Square to swap to Menu. Select any list of swords. Once back in battle in God Mode, hold back and press triangle twice, holding it down the 2nd time. This should put Noct away from Ardyn, and always warping him from a distance, with the high warp multiplier damage from before the transition.
If for some reason you die, back out of the menu until you see the List of Characters, then enter the same equip menu. This will give you a free revive. Proceed until Ardyn 3.
Once in the battle, equip Branare in the top slot. Noctis can now attack without his friends are Father's Sword. Do ~3-4 hits. QTE and gg.
===
Updated for AUG 2022. Few more optimizations have been made.
Begin your New Game as normal. Hop forward 8 times to trigger the Ifrit cutscene. There's no particular angle or movement to make the Gladio Push faster.
During the Car Push, swing the camera to the front of the car, close to the ground, to save on the loadtime into the world. Technically, the best loadtimes would be attained after one practice run, but with a loadless timer available, this is much less of a necessity to get a good final time.
Jump once forward in between Ignis and Gladio to speak to Cindy. Swing the camera 180, jump back and twice to the Car Shopkeep, cancelling out of the shop menu right away and clearing the blue box. This is the fastest way for Ignis to mention you're out of money.
Being in front of Cindy, cancel out of the map and Talk. The right option with Gladio's text is a tad better of an option. Fiorst menu:
Noctis: 3 Swords + Mage Mashers, Royal Raiment Gladio: Warrior's Fanfare Iggy: Blitzer's Fanfare Prompy: Tactician's Fanfare
Once you've regain control, beeline straight for the [!]. Should be about 7 jumps before you can warp strike for movement. You can detour for the Megalixir on top of the rock to sell for 2000 gil later. Daggers have the faster animation for this. Takes about 4 warpstrikes to reach the first set of Scorpions. Ragnarok warp strike the 1st one once it's in range for an insta kill and 1 AP, followed by warping the the top of the pillar to replenish MP. Proceed to warpstrike another bug, and you should now get the miniquest to attack 5 times. Warp strike the 3rd, and proceed to dagger the 4th, until you complete the minquest and gain 10 AP. Once defeated, warp back up to the pillar, fall down, and warp left to continue the main quest.
Warping once in the middle of the jump every 2 jumps is balanced enough. Avoid getting into stasis unless it's with a final Ragnarok warpstrike into an enemy. Commence the second Scorpion fight the same way, Rag into one, into a Warp Point, and repeat. Defend 3 times for another 10 AP.
Third fight is laregely the same. Once finished, use the Take Photo option has Noct claps his hands to take a photo for your Gallery, as well as to cancel the animation. After the phonecall, proceed to the shack using only 3 warps.
For this 1st Sabertusk fight, you can Guard and Parry for 1 AP, or RagStrike for on occasional instakill. The fastest way to go about killing them is to jump and midair3combo with Raggy, but if you want to play it safe with AP accrual, wait for the first 2 options to work for you.
Onto the 2nd Tusk fight, jump a bit leftward to avoid the miniquest. You should be able to lock on to an enemy before it triggers, and a RagStrike will start the battle.
At finish, pick the left option on Dave's convo for 2 AP. Continue towards the [!], jumping and warping, trying to go over more terrain. This will minimize the chance of Ignis stopping you for a camp visit. Feel free to use your 1 Elixir here to warp a few more times.
Jumping on the rock triggers the Bloodhorn cutscene nicely. RagStrike from a Warpoint twice for the kill. Proceed to warp to the wall near 3 shinies. After the phonecall (default choice), being in 1st person mode picks up items on the ground faster, so press and old to grab all 3, and without waiting for them to show up in the HUD, you can Return to Entrance immediately.
Back in Hammer head now, jump 11 times to Cindy. You can detour left to the edge of the garage for a safety Phoenix Down. Complete the quest as you speak with here, picking the left option for another 2 AP, and proceeding to Manual Drive the car.
Towards Longwythe, park it when you hear Gladio utter the word "car". Climbing out, go right over the fence and beeline for the camp. If lucky, you'll get into the battle range of the nearby Dualhorn, granting you a warppoint to zip too, replenish the MP as well as gaining distance, to continue warping. Absorb the Ice and Lightning magic. Camp. Eat the pizza (in-game preferably). Return to Car. Keep Manualling.
Go beyond the [!], close to the gate. Time for the first major glitch, the Zero Camera Bug.
Once out of the car, in 1st-person mode, head right to the wall, touching it. While holding forward, jump, Tactical Menu, Take Photo, cancel out of it immediately, and hit Pause. If done right, you should be very zoomed out. If this is a new technique to you, switch down your FPS from 120 to 30. When pressing Resume, immediately open the Tac menu once more, selecting Take Photo, but immediately mash Triangle after to open the Gallery. Back out once and mash the Gallery button again. If the timing was done properly, you'll see a Loading Circle at the bottom of the screen. If all this time you've been holding forward, back out of all menus, and once the game loads up, you should be above the cliffside. Bring the game back to 120 fps if it's not.
Go around the blockade, and warp back down over the cliff after the steel wall. Near the road, Call Car. Continue to Manual drive to Wiz's Chocobo post. Once parked, grab the Airstep Sword from the car shop on the left. Second menu:
Ascension: Change to Ignis Noct: Airstep Sword + Fire (replacing Engine Blade + Blazefire) Iggy: Magitek Suit
Jumping toward Wiz will auto trigger the Chocobo cutscene. Talk to him again and accept the Behemoth quest. Return to Car. Manual drive towards Nebullawood Parking spot. We'll now be stopping at the second opening of the fence on the left. Being out of the car, now you'll be jumpwarping with Airstep sword. Go straight ahead down the path to the rock. Slightly left of the path should be a small rock junction you can get up on, with an invisible wall in front of you.
Perform another ZCB. This is safest done by bringing your FPS down to 30. Once through and on the rocks, veer right. Eventually, jumpwarping will bring you the end of the dungeon, but you must ZCB back inside it's bounds. After touching the little shimmy point and hearing Gladio's line, the boss is loaded. ZCB back in, and proceed to Behemoth. Cast Fire on the barrel when he's near it for another 10 AP.
For the fight, Switch to Ignis, and spam Fire Dagger attacks. Paws are weak. At completion, leave through the rear of the dungeon, and once you jump up to the trees, Return to Car. Auto Drive to Parking Spot to Wiz post, with a fast travel.
Jump towards Wiz again to finally unlock your Bird. Jump forward twice and interact with the kiosk to order a Chocobo for 2 days. Buy 1 Mimett Green too. There's another Phoenix Down close to the barrels beside the penns. Proceed to fall down the cliff, and beeline for the road in the distance. Try to Airstepsword jumpwarp over the rocky outcroppings. Once at the road, Call Car.
Continue the Manual Drive to Lestallum Blockade, but manually park in the middle of it. Out of the car, jump right to the big rock. Get on top, and then with a jumpwarp, onto the little rock lip. Another ZCB will get you out of bounds once more. Once through, go left, jumpwarping, until past the steel gate, where you can fall down, get near the road, and Call Car.
Manual Drive to Lestallum, parking in front of the Gas Station manually. Jump towards the Furloch Farms market, and buy 1 Kettier Ginger. Return to Rest.
At your campsite, Wait to Nightfall. Fall down, and grab the same Ice and Lightning deposit. Continue to jumpwarp to the street where we first parked post-Hammerhead. Call the Car there. Time to trigger the Active Menu Glitch.
Facing the car in 1st person mode, perform a ZCB (do switch the FPS down from 120 to 30). During the loadscreen off the Gallery,back out twice and immediately Interact with the Regalia. If done properly, you'll see the Car Menu appear on the Loadscreen. At this point, we have the first part activated, where the world around us keeps ticking by with a menu open. For the sake of efficiency, a lot of menuing is done here while we wait. Under Shop:
Buy Chocobean + Sweet Pepper Sell mineral shards, fishing gear, other goods, Sabertusk Claws and Scoprion Barbs.
Backing out partially, go to Main Menu:
Ascension: Enhancement, 2nd Acc slot for Noct, Aftertaste Gear: Noct gets Stamina Badge, Ignis gets Enhancement, Gladio and Prompto get Magitek suits. Add the Masamune to Gladio and Gae Bolg to Iggy too.
You should have interacted with the car initially at 19 o'clock, meaning after he menu it will now be 20, nightime, allowing Demons to spawn on the road. Depending on the camera you'll see them, but regardless, a red bar appears for nearby enemy danger at the top of the screen. Once you see that, in Main Menu, select Elemancy. A Blue Box should pop up.
Once struck by the enemy, another Blue Box should appear. Change the Camera into 3rd person, to see the area around you again. At this point, there should be 2 or 3 Blue Boxes on screen, with the Main Menu in the background. Simply hobble away from the fight.
Once the Battle Summary dissapears from the screen, close out the blue boxes. If the Hand dissapears from the Main Menu watermark, you have AMG enabled. Return to Rest. Sleep. Eat the Plump Tofu and Mimett Greens.
Upon morning, Return to Title. Open of Comrades/Ardyn DLC to remove this watermark. You cannot open the Main Menu safely until you perform this step. Once at the DLC menu, simply back out, and reload your autosave from the campsite (Criclawe).
Call your Chocobo. Hop on. Open Main Menu. Screen should be white. Change camera view to remove this white screen. You can now retain movement with a Menu on screen. Go straight towards the mountain left of Hammerhead.
The game will begin to deload the areas far away from where you first opened the menu. To increase your speed, open up the Item Menu. By alternating Sort and Sprint (Triangle + Square), you can sprint occasionally, even though you can't see your Stamina bar. Once through the fence, you can back out of the menus, and proceed to run to the beach at the land's end, as close to Insomnia as possible.
Once there, hop off the bird, open your Save menu, and selecting a file, double press Interact while beside your Bird. This will prompt a Blue Box to Save, at the same time mounting your Bird. Continue to run into the water, towards the water towers in the middle of Insomnia.
After about 3 minutes, the terrain should dissapear. You can then choose Save, and you'll save in the middle of a empty ocean void. Cancel out of the menu, open it up again, and Load this newly made file.
If done correctly, you have now teleported to Ch 14's Crown City. Upon gaining control, go backwards to grab an Imperial Medal. Proceed though the city, getting 1 more Ice and Lightning canister. At the tunnel before the Cor meeting, make 99 Ice+ 99 Lightning + Imperial Medal for Noctis. Also throw on his Magitek Suit and Tech Turbocharger.
Ahriman fight starts with one cast of your newly minted magic. The rest of the fight is 3 Ragnarok Warp strikes with a teleport to a warp point to replenish MP, until the fight is done. Use Cor's Lion's Roar on the Floating Deaths for additional damage.
Once having obtained the key from Cor, speak to him once more (with a Photo Cancel tech) to unlock sidequests. Proceed to go up the stairs and speak with Josef. On your way down the escalator, sell the Eyeballs, and buy the Quicksilver for 8000 gil. If you have gil left over, buy some Phoenix Downs at the neighbouring vending machine.
Continue to the Cerberus fight.
Cast one spell. Ragnarok a few times until you can Enhancement. Use the pattern of 3 Ragnarok Warp Strikes from a Warpoint, and repeat that. Resupplement your Enhancement as needed. Same exact strategy for Phase 2.
Through the gate onto Ifrit.
In battle, Rag WarpStrike once, 3 hit air combo, jump back twice, repeat until out of MP. Should be enough to trigger the summon. If lucky, Enhancement at the end up Cerberus 2 carries into this fight.
With Ifrit 2, wait for 1 Tech bar to get Enhancement off. After the animation, immediately cast your spell. Warpstrike with Rag. Then to a warp point. Try to time your warpstrikes such that they hit Ifrit when he's vulnerable.
Upon defeat, roll to door. Unlock Change to Gladio if you haven't already on the Ascension grid.
Fierce. Cast spell. Raggy Warpy. Warpy Pointy. Repeat until Enhancement. Rinse and repeat. You can alternatively use Iggy's Fire daggers for this fight. At around 10% or lower HP, you can manually switch to Gladio early.
Rogue. Cast spell. Raggy Warpy. Switch to Ignis. Fire Dagger attack spam. After 50% HP is depleted, you can switch back to Noct to cast the last spell. Eventually Prompto will auto switch and finish her off.
Mystic. Switch to Iggy for is Firry Diggies. No real strategy, but use a full Clarity when it fills up a full bar.
Before the Throne Door, switch into any weapon, and quickly open your Main Menu + First Person Mode, go into Elemancy, select Circle twice on full flask, which will ask you to empty it and simultaneously interact with the door, playing the cutscene. Hit Square to switch to the Equip menu. You'll notice your weapon before the pause is greyed out. You can select a photo normally without worrying about your menu, but you are unable to select "Yeah" or skip the Throne Room cutscene. Have the cursor on Attire, and select a different outfit when you Ardyn puts his foot on the throne and says "waiting".
As the Throne Room cutscene is fading to black, while on the Attire, select that second outfit again. This bypasses the game's safety check, which would normally boot you out of the Throne Room. Noct should have nothing equipped in Attire, but be moving forward fine. Once you regain movement, in the cutscene, re-equip 3 broadswords and Mage Mashers. If still at Lv 9, you should have ~128 MP.
Warp down. Head to the Citadel and warp the upper right cliff. On the Airstep Sword, Fall, warp right, then warp up left towards the corner. Continuosly mash warp to gain height against the corner, near the roof solar panels. Once you feel you are high enough (2 to the corner, 11 warp into the corner to gain height), begin warping right. You'll know you are good because the character icon on the minimap is going over the black portion of the map. Hopefully, you will have just enough MP to get over the rubble on the right side, getting you out of the battle arena. You can land on the rubble and jungle gym around it as well, but try to keep your height up. This is very challenging, and for beginners, I advise that before the Throne Room, you sleep at a Bed below, and unlock Elementagic, to increase your MP count.
Head rightward towards the tower, warping up to the top corner, where Cor is waiting for you. Open the Menu and equip Magitek Exosuit. Talk to Cor to begin the quest. Warp kill the soldiers is the fastest way to go about this quest. Upon completion, your party members return.
Ardyn would have appeared around you by now, but since you are not really in the battle state, your HP won't fall to 0. Your friends are in the party, but won't attack. Just gradually warp strike Ardyn within the base with Ragnarok between Warp Points. If your AP usage was wise, you'd have enough to unlock Point Blank Warp Strike. Pick up the nearby Magitek Suit to for a small attack boost for Noct, replacing the Tech Turbocharger. Eventually the cutscene will play to get to Ardyn 2.
With the Tofu gone now, this battle is sort of tough. If you are low on items, there is a trick you can use. By using Iggy/Gladio/Prompto ability with L1, Noctis will shout the name 10 times, freezing Ardyn, but letting you regain your HP. If you are out of Phoenix Downs, use this method to get back your health. You can also perpetually Warp Strike (R1 and hold triangle), but that risks you getting one-shot by Ardyn 2.
Once you enter Ardyn 3, you have no weapons, and no means to attack. The game would normally let you wield the Sword of the Father, but you haven't gotten that yourself. So instead it's your party members that must deplete Ardyn's HP. This may take a couple minutes since the party is relatively weak, but just hop around until they do. They can heal you too if you get injured. If lucky, a Fire spell will make this go a lot faster. The final QTE will appear on its own, and Noctis will summon the Royal Arms even though he's never obtained one. Warning, I suggest you time the QTEs with care, as it's possible for Ardyn to get knocked out of them by your party members, failing the sequence, putting Ardyn at permanent 1 hp and forcing you to cry and reset.
=== Old route
Deleted as now text is too long :(
=== FAQ
Wow! How was this ever discovered?!
By combining indivudal glitches together over the course of a lot of failed attempts. These tricks were not solely discovered by me. Many were referenced off YouTube videos of FFXV glitches.
So where's the run?
Haven't made a full successful video of this from beginning to end. I'm trying to route out the kinks still, and I'm sure others can provide optimization. Estimated time is now 2.5 hrs.
Are there other glitches that aren't used in the route?
Absolutely.
Ifrit 2 skip - normally possible in NG+ only, as it requires hunders of MP to pull off, but warping to the highest point during the battle, Airdancing with Ifrit to gain height, and heading to the upper left corner where the Throne Room is, you can use a party member's ability to teleport inside the Room, use another ability in between warps to deload the room to get to the Throne Room door, and effectively skip the Fierce+Rouge+Mystic fights
Customization Menu glitch - triggered from RtE + Prompto Tour, you can cuztomize the Regalia while having free movement, including driving the Regalia itself; this was once used to get Armiger Glitch/ God Mode in places outside of battle
Extra party members - from RtE being used with a guest Party Member, you can steal Cor/Aranea/Iris/Ardyn for awhile in areas where they normally shouldn't be
Zero Camera Bug - a way to deload walls without AMG; by being in 1st person mode, selecting Take Photo, canceling it and Pausing at the right time, a vast zoom out backdrop of Lucis is seen, which heavily lags the game; once you unpause, and maintain your forward movement, you can get past some invisible walls/fences
