If you're reading this, probably you're just starting running this game, and are looking for some general tips to improve your speed. This is the place, where you can look for some advices and certain strats that maybe aren't that obvious and can help you in a great way. Let's start!

Last update: 19/08/2017

Difference between NG and NG+ AKA Regular shot and Mighty Shot

You might be wondering why these are two separate categories. When you finish the first 16 incidents for the first time, you unlock the mighty shot, a overpowered shot that can shoot through rock blocks and kill armor enemies instantly (and go across normal enemies with just one shot!). Most importantly, using the mighty shot the right way allows you to gain horizontal momentum, and the ability to go faster than using the regular shot.

That makes each shot unique, on playstyle and strats, so it was necessary to separate each one on different categories. In this document, you don't have to worry about the mighty shot, you will only use the regular shot.

Suits?

Patty can wear different outfits that you can unlock. And they will make a difference on the long road of a run. You unlock the Pixel Police Suit after incident #01, and unlock the gym clothes getting PAR times on all incident and bonus stages. On frame by frame analysis, gym clothes saves time, letting Patty move more on less time, in comparation with the other two suits, so you want to use it instead of the police suit.

What slows and what doesn't slow you down

If you wonder what actions can slow you down during a run, thinking about optimizing your movement, here is a list:

• Jumping
• Falling off ledges by running
• Receiving damage
• Crashing a wall (Including a ceiling)

What does NOT slow you down:

• Shooting (on the ground or while jumping)
• Grabing powerups, checkpoints or the hooligans
• Doing switches (you lose time but doesn't affect your momentum)

If you want to optimize your movement, you have to jump the less possible, try to not recieve damage (except when a damage boost is necessary), or try to not crash walls/ceiling.

But what happens when you are on a situation in which you have to choose between jumping, falling off a ledge or crashing the ceiling? Well, have this in mind

• Always is faster to jump the edge of a cliff than falling off from it by running
• Always is faster to jump, crash with the cealing and fall from the edge, than falling off from it by running

So, from the things that slow you down you should always priorize jumping, then crashing the ceiling. Avoid falling off ledges the most you can.

General indications and tricks

• Consider that the actual pixels in which Patty can fall of a block doesn't match with her feet, you can seem she is almost floating off it, try it! This allows a lot of pixels perfect jumps, specially in some incidents.

• You don't need to have all your body on a launcher box to activate it, you just need the first part of Patty's hitbox to get launched (the same applies to enemies)

• All small rock blocks have 3 hit points, so you only need 3 shoot per block, use this to count the exact amount of shoot needed in certain situations.

• The hitbox of the explosions of the bombs is mainly horizontal, and poorly vertical, making easy to avoid them by jumping if you're too close

• This games doesn't have global cycles nor local cycles. Is a special type of cycles that activate when you are aproximately "two rooms away" from the enemy. Consider that the size of a "room" is the space occupied by your screen. Manipulating cycles by switching things that you don't see is probably the hardest thing about this speedgame

• Incident #06 and #10 have a strat called "Checkpoint skip" in which, with good input, you can skip the hitbox that activate the checkpoints even when the space to do it is pretty small. Practice it the most! It require time and practice to get consistent. Try to always press first the jump button and then the right button for better execution.

• Bombs can destroy up to 4 rock blocks on the line below them, if you explode them just in the center of them.

That's it! With this, you should be able to start improving your time soon. All of this will become intuitive on time. Good luck running!