General Glitch/Exploit/Technique how to and explanation

Term Definitions:

Melee: Your standard close combat weapon that’s available from the very start of the game. Depending on the character it could be a sword, an axe, or knives.

Ranged: Your standard ranged combat weapon that’s available from the very start of the game. This weapon has unlimited ammo but it is considerably less powerful than the special weapons scattered around in the game. Depending on the character it could be a pistol, a crossbow, a shotgun, or a pair of pistols.

Special: Weapons found scattered around in the game that are powerful but have a limited amount of ammo.

Ballistic Special: Any special weapon that is bullet based. Specifically the different shotguns and machine guns in the game

Checkpoints: Any kind of required interaction agent in the game that needs to be activated with the interaction button (A button on default button configuration). these could be for example, the hint glyphs required on the very first section of the game, skeletal remains on sewers, switches or even doors that cannot be skipped.

Goal Glyph: It is the green glyph that you have to interact with at the end of every level in order to progress to the next one. It brings out the save file screen.

Movement

-Tethered Distance
Tethered distance is a game mechanic that prevents you from going too far away from your teammates. In fact, while playing this game casually it almost felt like this was too strict to the point where it would difficult overall movement. Luckily this was only in 3 or more players games. In 2 players co-op this is far more controllable and if both players are well aware of the boundaries, it’s not even a problem. While speedrunning this game it is very important to note that the faster character player will always be limited by the slower one, which means he wont be able to run at full speed towards the next goal. It is because of this that the pace of the run is dictated by the slower character player.
The most important Thing to remember about this mechanic however, is that because it exists, both characters will have a specific role.

-Character Roles
Slower character (Judge): Judge will control the pace of the run, so it is vital that he doesn't do any unnecessary stops, including getting hit by any enemy since this puts him in a flinch state that prevents him from doing any action (including walking) for a brief period of time.
Faster character (Martyr): Martyr will act as an assist for Judge in a few ways, first of all she will try to hit enemies who could possibly slow Judge down, since hitting enemies puts them in a flinch state it prevents them from being able to attack him. There’s yet another role for martyr: acting as an extension of judge’s interaction space. There are quite a few moments in the game where either a switch, a glyph, or a corpse require to be interacted with, and more often than  not, these interaction checkpoints are separated from the optimal fastest path. In these scenarios Martyr will try to extend the tethered distance as far as possible in order to interact with the checkpoint, allowing judge to keep walking through the optimal path. You can try to think of it as an arm that can extend further away from judge’s body in order to interact with the world around him without needing to leave the optimal path.

-Tanking
Tanking might or not be an intended mechanic in the game that allows you to prevent flinch animation. Getting hit by an enemy causes your character to flinch, an animation that brings your character to a full stop and additionally disallows you to perform any action for a brief period of time. So if tanking is performed right it will allow you to prevent the flinch animation delivered by an enemy attack, while still taking the damage. There are 5 ways to perform tanking:

Attack Tanking: initiate an attack (ranged or special weapon shooting/engaging, melee weapon attack or pistol whacking). Tanking will be active during the whole attack animation.

Reload Tanking: simply start reloading your weapon right before an enemy hits you, tanking will be active during the whole reload animation.

Jump Tanking: press the jump button moments before getting hit by an enemy attack, tanking will be active during the whole jump animation including the squat prior to the actual jump. This type of tanking has an added effect: stopping your jump’s height gain, it will stop it the moment the hit connects forcing you to land earlier.

Vault Tanking: simply perform a Vault (press the jump button while strafing) right before getting hit by an enemy. Tanking will be active during the whole vault animation. Additionally, this type of tanking negates the knock down effect delivered by most of the bosses' knock down attack, along with the gargoyle's knock down attack.

Weapon Switch Tanking: switch to a different weapon and tanking will be active during the switch. Additionally, this type of tanking negates the knock down effect delivered by most of the bosses' knock down attack, along with the gargoyle's knock down attack.

-Glyph Hop
There are 2 types of replenishing glyphs in the game: The health and the mana glyphs. These glyphs are found on the ground and replenish a portion of your health or mana depending on which one you activate. Normally, when you activate them, your character will initiate an animation that will bring you to a stop for about a little more than a second. However, it is possible to prevent this animation from happening by jumping on the same frame that the glyph is activated. Simply put you have to press jump button + the interaction button at the exact same time while you’re on top of the glyph. You can do this even if you’re running which would be the best way to use this glitch since you will be able to jump towards whatever direction you need to go while getting replenished.

-Melee and Ranged Character Speeds
Every character in the game has 2 different walking speeds that are determined by which weapon he or she is holding, with martyr being the only exception. For Judge, he is at his fastest when holding his melee weapon, and he is significantly slower when holding his ranged weapon. Since he controls the pace of the run it is important to not switch to his ranged weapon if it is not needed. Additionally, if Judge is holding a ballistic special weapon however, he will be as fast as his melee speed.
Martyr is the fastest character in the game, and she is so regardless of the weapon she is holding. Ranged, melee and ballistic special weapons allow her to walk at the same speed. 

-Ledge Walk-Off Animation Interruptions
Plain and Simple, the vaulting and the knock down animations can be canceled/replaced by the walk-off animation. There are a few places where you will find ledges that happen to be on the optimal path. It is possible to vault towards it and then cancel the last frames of the animation with the walk-off animation. This is useful because vaulting is a short burst of speed (for most characters) with the inconvenience that the last few frames actually slow the character down significantly. Walk-off animation when used as an animation canceler, locks the speed of the character during the frames that it lasts, so all this put together results in a burst of speed for the character performing the trick.

-Reload-Free Interactions
Since reloading a weapon and interacting with checkpoints is performed by pressing the same button on the controller, you’ll encounter instances where you will activate a checkpoint and automatically reload your weapon unwillingly. This can be bypassed by simply shooting your weapon right before pressing the interaction button, this button has to be pressed while the shooting animation is still active for the trick to work.


Combat

-Quick Draw
Quick Draw is a technique that allows you to pull out any weapon faster than you normally would. In order for this to work you need to be walking towards any direction and also be pressing the aiming stick towards any direction also, while switching to another weapon. Boiled down into inputs it would be: hold walking stick in any direction, hold c-stick in any direction (both these actions can be performed at the same time), switch weapon. This trick can also be performed in mid-air and can also be performed while jumping in place. There is another way to perform this trick but it only works when switching to a melee weapon. What you need to do is simply switch to a melee weapon when you’re somewhat close to an enemy.

-Instant Reload Glitch
It is possible to reload a ballistic special weapon without the reload animation happening at all. Simply switch to any other weapon and switch back to the weapon you want to reload and it will already be fully reloaded. This is useful when combined with quick drawing, since this animation is shorter than the reload animation. You’ll mostly want to do this when you can afford to shoot multiple ballistic special weapons and you’re trying to clear a large number of enemies on the screen. If you’re trying to save ammo for a certain weapon it is better to just reload the weapon normally. All that being said this trick works with the normal ranged weapon too but but has a limited amount of ammo. For example martyr, she has 60 available bullets that she can use when performing this trick. Since her bullet clip is a 20 bullet one, that means you can fully empty your clip, then perform the trick, and repeat this process 2 more times. If you do the trick again your weapon will not be loaded.

-Auto Aim
If you shoot your ranged or Ballistic special weapons without pressing any direction on either stick, your hunter will pick a target within range at random and will continue to do so until you start moving either stick.

-Retribution Cancel
Martyr has an edge called “Retribution” that allows her to become invincible while also reflecting some of the damage dealt to her back at the source enemy. As any other edge, when you activate it, it will play an animation that brings you to a stop for a brief period of time. It is possible to cancel this animation while still activating the effect by jumping on the same frame that the edge is activated. Ideally you will want to do it by pressing both triggers instead of pressing the interaction button + the jump trigger but it works both ways. Both buttons have to be pushed at the exact same time.


Useful Glitches/Exploits

-Chainsaw Stacking
It is possible to exceed the amount of ammo normally allowed by the game for the chainsaw. What you need to do is simply have a chainsaw with full ammo on your inventory and reset the game before grabbing a second chainsaw. The game normally does not allow you to grab a chainsaw if you already have one with full ammo, but resetting the game allows you to do so, and it is yet unknown why this happens. When you use this trick you will have an extra chainsaw that will pop out when you empty the first one.

-Clipping
It is possible to clip most, if not all walls in the game. It is mostly impossible to do with 1 character alone but with 2 characters it is more viable. That being said, it is easier to clip through walls in corners (where two walls meet). what you have to do is simply keep jumping towards the corner, you’ll then start noticing how your character kind of starts “entering” the wall. At this point your partner has to help you clip to the other side by jumping into the corner himself/herself. Simply put your partner is going to push you to other side of the wall. All this being said, there are only a few locations in the game where this is actually worth going for because the clip takes a little time to set up and there’s no guarantee of how much time it will actually take to do the clip. In addition to this, the fact that tethered distance exists makes it mostly useless to navigate on the other side of the wall since you’re going to be limited in range and also your partner won’t be able to clip by himself. All this makes clipping mostly useless but there is still one instance left in the run where clipping saves a considerable amount of time(in prison yard 1), and that is thanks to the existence of doors. If you’re able to clip and a door is within reach, you can open said door and the game will teleport both characters inside of the room.

-Map Change Revive
It is possible to revive your character without the use of a life/continue. If you die close to a goal glyph, do not continue, have your partner activate the goal glyph which will put you on the next level in the game, and will actually spawn you alive with all of your xp and weapons that you had. Only downside is that you will be at 1 hit away of death, but this can be solved by simply healing on health glyphs or with red orbs dropped by enemies.

-Enemy Weapon Drops
Sometimes enemies will drop a special weapon when they are killed. These enemies are always the same ones and will spawn in the same location every time.

-Cut Scene Skipping
to skip any cut scene in the game simply hold the A or the start button as soon as the cut scene starts. This will skip it on the first frame that the game allows it. There’s only one exception: The very first cut scene with Arkady being executed. You need to mash A or start button to skip this cut scene.

General Glitch/Exploit/Technique Video Tutorial

This is focused on general glitches meaning there's no co-op specific glitches in the video. All of these techniques are very important to speedrun the game in general though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP95ctY2yqw

Name	Author
General Glitch/Exploit/Technique how to and explanation	Rata 6 years ago
General Glitch/Exploit/Technique Video Tutorial	Rata 6 years ago