Hello everyone,

I decided to write down my "guide" on what I think is the best route for this category as well as give some tips on the general layout and what to watch out for. Keep in mind that the decal Treasure Hunter is heavily utilized in this guide, and advised for any speedrun.

First off I like to point out an important feature of Treasure Hunter, that might often be overlooked. And that is that it highlights valves. On your original playthrough these valves are used to block off areas so you are forced to fight mid-bosses. Of course you would later open these gates. But the valves are still located on the map. This helps with routing a lot. These valves display as a "!" on the map when using treasure hunter. So if I refer to the valve exit in the routing below then this is what I mean.

Routing introduction In general, even though the game has several different layouts, 9 out of 10 times you will be sticking to the same route as all the mid-bosses are pretty much located on the main path. However there are a few situations where going off the main path is slightly faster, and I'll point these out as I go. Also, keep in mind this is MY recommended route. I might be the world record holder but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. SO take out of this what you want.

Route D.O.D. Arms

• 1F Ikegara: Just keep running, if you come at the cross-section there's about an 80% chance you will already see which side goes to Wanoki, take the opposite side.

• 2F Imokawa-Cho: 1 Straight floor. Just keep running.

• 3F Tamata: TH (Treasure Hunter) is useful, lots of times you can save 1 tileset so check where Coen is before the crossroads.

• 4F Tagahara: TH is important. I've noticed Joten-Jima is usually the escalator the furthest away from you.

• 5F Joten-Jima: TH not required. 1 Straight floor. Just keep running.

• 6F Moka-Magome: TH is very useful. This is the most random floor in D.O.D. Arms. Also when you kill Jin-Die the escalator to Daneda is always the second/highest one in her arena.

• 7F Daneda: TH useful, take the normal escalator exit to Meta-Koya. The other escalator has a valve.

• 8F Meta-Koya: Use TH to check for the valve escalator, this is where you want to go.

• 9F: Smallest D.O.D. floor with only 1 tileset. Escalator to 10F is easy to spot because of this.

• 10F Omeno-Soto: Pretty straight forward map. It's useful to use a strategy called train skip. (My PB has this.) Basically you want to jump of the first train to the second one very fast. This way you can sprint through the first part of the second train fast enough to jump back on the first one. This saves having to climb up onto that 1 part where you always fall off cuz the game hates you. The full animation will still have to play but it saves around 10 seconds.

*Aditional note: You want to go with the 8F Meta-Koya route instead of Niko-Senzoku as Niko-Senzoku forces you trough Yoshiki-Dani which has a forced reversal tuber encounter, and also the highest area in the game which you do not want to climb or fall off from.

War Ensemble

• 11F Maka-Tsutsumi: Stick to the right side for Goto. He's always in the same location. After you kill goto open the gates with the valve behind you. This saves about 5 seconds.

• 12F Ukongoka: Take the escalator to Kamoto which has a valve.

• 13F Kamoto: TH is important. If you're lucky the escalator will be there right away. But with bad luck you'd have to run through the whole floor.

• 14F Yamadai: Keep left. The escalator is always this way when you are coming from Kamoto.

• 15F Usogaya. Use TH to see which escalator has the valve escalator, take the escalator without one.

• 16F Kaga: The layout of this floor is always the same except for the very last part that determines if Jin-Die is on the left or right side of the floor. After you kill Jin-Die, turn back and head for the Tata escalator.

• 18F Tata: Small floor with only 1 tileset. The escalator location is random.

• 19F Daida: This floor is random. Use TH to locate the escalator.

• 20F Nora: 1 straight path. Just keep running

• 19F Chitoso-mei. Use TH to locate the escalator.

• 20F Hachiyanma: No real advice I can provide here. This is usually the part of the run where I put on my armor.

Kama Tech

• 21F Akami: The escalator is always the one the furthest one away

• 22F Kawabe: There are 2 escalators that go up. Go to the one without a valve lock.

• 23F Echizen-Jima: Use TH to locate Goto's arena. It's always next to the elevator.

• 24F Sumikiyo: Use TH to locate the escalator.

• 25F Kanie - 28F Hyakkoku/Hyakuda: This is a lawless wasteland. There's no indicators of where you need to go. Just take whatever boss you can take out first and decide for yourself if you wanna go back to the other boss trough 25F Kanie or 27F Shinko-Bashi. Then proceed to make your way to 29F. On shop days (Mo, Wed, Fri) you want to take out Coen First and then go back trough Kanie for Jin-Die as this is faster for this layout.

• 29F Hasidaka: Use TH to look for the valve indicator for the draw bridge. If there's a chest next to the escalator then this is always Saigetsu, as a chest sometimes spawns near it.

• 30F Saigetsu: Again, nothing really special here. Just beat Crowley.

Muscle Internation League Killers (M.I.L.K.)

• 31F Obara: Osuki is always the furthest escalator away.

• 32F Osuki - 34F Nitanda: I prefer to go Osuki > Koi > Katsuma > Uchinobu for this route. The reason being is that the escalator to Katsuma is always next to your point of entry when entering Koi. And because when you get into Nitanda trough Uchinobu instead of Togose Coen And the escalator to Shina-Yama are always closer. But its ultimately up to the person.

• 35F Shina-Yama: 🎵 Here's a little lesson in trickery. 🎵 The pink escalators in the 30s are always a trap. You have to take the blue one to Itanodai. This is always the one furthest away.

• 36F Itanodai: Straight forward floor. Just 1 path with Goto at the end.

• 37F Hiromatsu: Use TH to locate the escalators. The placement is random so you just have to hope you get the Ebata escalator on the first try.

• 38F Ebata: Straightforward floor with Jin-Die at the end.

• 39F Haratsuka: The escalator is always attached to the crossroads with the tower. It's also the only escalator with a valve so you can use TH to locate it.

• 40F Futagi: Use the Dialogue skip. this saves about 17-19 seconds and works as follows. BEFORE you start your speedrun, head up to this floor and talk with Uncle Death. He will do his usual dialogue after which he asks the player to take of their equipment. Choose "No" as your response. Then go back to the waiting room and start your speedrun. About 95% of the time when you reach him again he won't do his full dialogue and simply asks you if you are ready to take of your equipment again. Instead of giving you his full dialogue. Talking with Uncle Dead to setup this skip has to be done every time the players goes back to the waiting room.

Rage fist punches to knock the first 2 fighters off the platform before the fight with Taro helps killing them faster as Taro will use fireballs and the hands from the platform to try and kill them.

Hope this helps everyone trying this category out! :D