Castlevania: Lords of Shadow glitches & things of interest FAQ
v. 1.2 (2. 3. 2015)
Written and partially discovered by AKheon & findlestick
Table of contents:
-------------------------
1. Introductions & glossary & abbreviations
2. Core mechanics
3. Level-by-levels
4. Contact info, credits, etc.
Version history:
- v. 1.2 (2. 3. 2015)
Added more new skips by Findlestick. Also some sections have been re-written.
File size: 176kb.
-v. 1.1 (22. 1. 2014)
Small fixes here and there. Also added new skips by Findlestick.
File size: 163kb.
- v. 1.0 (28. 8. 2013)
First one published. Mostly everything should be in order.
File size: 157kb.
1. Introduction & glossary & abbreviations
This is a FAQ that is interested in sharing all sorts of hidden knowledge
regarding this game, mainly about glitches and speedrun-relevant strategies.
Writing was started very spontaneously, and since many people had already
researched the game for sequence breaks and techniques, it was easy to continue
where they had left off.
Castlevania: LoS is a multi-platform game, but only the PS3 version has been
used for testing this stuff out. Things might vary in unforeseen ways on the
XBox360 or PC versions.
Another thing, only the original, unpatched game has been used in testing. Much
of this stuff may be fixed if you've downloaded any patches. Too bad for you,
you're missing out on all the fun.
For now, the DLC levels aren't included in this listing. Maybe some day...
Glossary:
Speedrun: playing a game or a part of it with the intention of completing it as
quickly as possible.
Glitch: programming errors. Useful for creating amusement or even skipping
parts of the levels. Not all glitches are good, though.
Launch / Lift-up: launch is an attack for launching enemies in air. Typically
these moves allow Gabriel himself to ascend in air as well, a speciality we
shall call a lift-up.
Break-out: the character regaining control in a scenario where you're normally
deprived of control, like a cutscene or a long attack animation.
Grapple point / rappel point = used interchangeably for those blue points you
examine and use for climbing and other navigation.
Out of bounds = A term for the mostly empty area that is outside normal level
boundaries. You can get there by various means in many of the levels.
Abbreviations:
LoS = Lords of Shadow
NG = New Game
NG+ = New Game+
HC = Holy Cross
OoB = Out of Bounds
c: = credits to
§ = note to self, have to expand later or verify something
Fastest completion time of Lords of Shadow?
Truth be told, not too many people have speedran this game so far, despite the
interesting tricks and the potential it has.
At 2013 summer Findlestick did individual level runs of all the game's levels
and published them in one big video. Even as of today they are a decent
reference of the game's tricks, although for a RTA you need to adapt the
strategies to make them safer to use. Also, these runs don't use a recently
discovered high jump which makes some skips more convenient. Still, good runs.
Videos:
1, findlestick's run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRzneWAKa-s
Lestatvampir has done some Real Time Attacks of this game. His Full Power NG+
run record is 2:18:17, completed in a single sitting as expected. Aside that,
his NG+ without Full Power is 2:23:51.
Videos:
1, twitch recording of Lestatvampir's RTA NG+ Full Power run:
http://www.twitch.tv/lestatvampir/c/6052157
2, twitch recording of Lestatvampir's RTA NG+ run:
http://www.twitch.tv/lestatvampir/c/6115223
2. Core mechanics
General speed tips:
- whenever there's a balancing pole, jump along it as far as you can. Moving on
balancing beams is just too slow normally. Same goes for those spider's web
threads.
- same idea for swamps. Jump as deep into the swamp you can instead of slowly
drudging through all the way.
- You can use Ultimate Light to whirl over swamp surface as well as those
balancing poles and spider's webs. So once you have the move, you'll be able to
save some time using it.
- a little more info below, in the "Fastest Movement Style"-section.
- use stomp to drop down quickly after some jumps.
Quick rolling:
In the start of the game, before you get Sprint, quick rolling is the fastest
way to move in the game. You can do it by either...
1, tapping block while pushing analog stick to the direction you want to go.
Doing this, Gabriel will always attempt to turn towards the direction you are
pushing the analog stick with a special animation at the end of the roll, and
this actually saves a little bit of time because it cancels the cooldown of one
roll every once in a while! Pretty neat.
2, holding block while tapping analog stick to a direction. The advantage of
this method on the other hand is that you can freely backwards or side roll
without Gabriel trying to turn forward. What sort of advantage is that? Well...
maybe in TAS-conditions backwards rolls could be better than forward rolls in
some cases... eh, I'm just grasping at straws here.
3, another quick rolling method - which may be overall the fastest - is to keep
pressed the button to roll, while spamming grab. However, this isn’t
recommended at times that there are grabbable enemies around, since Gabriel
will grab them.
Other fast movement styles:
After you get it, Sprint is generally the fastest way to move, but you have to
re-activate it quite often. You can do this re-activation during a jump, which
may in some cases be useful. Sprinting speed also carries over to your jump.
Sprint cuts off if Gabriel hits some collision or if there are even small
elevation differences on the ground, which is pretty annoying. However,
occasionally Sprint can glitch up (after doing Shoulder Charge for example) so
that it re-activates when hitting collision instead, allowing for more seamless
running than usual. Maybe it would be useful to purposefully activate this
glitch at some areas where the ground is very bad for normal Sprinting?
Finally, another potential fast movement tactic is using Shoulder Charge. It
gives you noteworthy speed, but only for a moment. You can spam it and move far
faster than with quick rolling, but you will also drain your magic away in no
time and it can be hard to control. But it should come in handy at some places,
if you have Shadow magic to spare. Also, a secondary asset of Shoulder Charge
is that during speed boost the rest of the game world slows down, allowing you
to get past traps like the elemental traps at Music Box relatively safely.
Generally about big jumps:
In action adventure games, being able to jump higher or longer than normal can
have surprisingly destructive results, so it is worthwhile to figure out
techniques to do big jumps.
Unfortunately, Gabriel's normal jump is quite inadequate. Can't reach very high
or far with it, and this can be hard to get used to if you've already been
spoiled by the innate double jump that God of War and many other games bestow
upon your character. But I guess that's Castlevania for you: double jump has to
be earned.
You have to wait until you get better gear to improve your jumps. Fortunately
LoS also New Game+ mode where you can revisit old levels with all your gear and
resources, so at least one speedrunning category can do all possible tricks and
techniques from the start of the game.
More about both high and long jumps in sections below. Many of the listed basic
ideas were first demonstrated by satvara or findlestick.
Using basic Whip attacks in high or long jumps:
Whip attacks by themselves aren't that useful for high or long jumping. They
are most handy as filler moves in between more useful air moves like Avalanche
Punch or Holy Waters to squeeze everything out of an air combo.
Well, the air Direct / Area attack can be used to extend your jump a little if
you have a good horizontal momentum, but Gabriel tends to plummet downwards
very quickly afterwards.
Just a small mention that the air Direct attack has different properties if you
do it from running. This way the attack has a much stronger upwards boost, and
you can do it up to four times in a row still gaining height. This is useful to
know when you need to start a high jump from a normal jump instead of a launch.
You can use your double jump after the air Area attack - knowing this can come
in handy doing the Backwards High Jump (more about it further down).
Using Dark Gauntlet in high or long jumps:
At the start of the game, Gabriel can't really do very good high or long jumps.
The first real aid you get is the Dark Gauntlet that gives you access to both
Avalanche Punch and Landslide Punch, both of which are useful tools in high
jumping.
Avalanche Punch is pretty obvious in its purpose: it gives Gabriel more height.
You can do it three to four times in air in between basic Whip air attacks and
keep gaining height, but it becomes less effective each time you do it.
Charging Avalanche Punch by keeping the button held down doesn't seem to give
you extra height, but at least it gives you a second to think about your next
move. You can also turn in air conveniently during this charging time, helping
performing some high jump finisher moves.
Landslide Punch is a pure finisher move - you can only do it once, and it's
best reserved for the end of the jump. Landslide Punch can be used to get some
extra height and length to your jump, although learning to utilize it well is a
bit tricky. As you may have noticed, just normally doing the move causes
Gabriel to move backwards during the attack, and that doesn't really help you.
However, if you charge the attack with your back towards your destination, then
turn right before letting go of the button, Gabriel moves forward a nice
length.
Using Landslide Punch becomes more difficult with enemies or breakable objects
around because Gabriel is all too willing to start auto-targeting them instead.
In those cases, you should consider using another jump finisher. The only time
the auto-targeting comes in useful, is if the targeted object is on the other
side of some wall you want to jump over. But these locations are rare
throughout the game.
Since you get Gauntlet early in the game, in a New Game run it is your best
hope for pulling off high jumps until much later.
Videos:
1, small demonstration by AKheon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSK4gidU7PE
Using Holy Water in high or long jumps:
A little known fact is that Holy Water actually has strong anti-gravity
properties, helping you move forward and rise higher in air each time you toss
one. Tossing Holy Waters in an air combo in between other air attacks never
seems to stop giving you height, but you only have a finite amount of Holy
Waters and should be careful where you really want to use them.
Holy Water is also an excellent finisher to a jump. Gabriel moves a little
forward in air when you toss a Holy Water, so it comes in handy whenever you
have to land on some small piece of floor and need to be more precise than with
Landslide Punch.
You can use double jump after a Holy Water, which can come in handy when doing
Backwards High Jump. More about it further down.
Videos:
1, a long jump example by AKheon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vstmHRW34hE
Using Silver Daggers in high or long jumps:
Daggers also make Gabriel move in air, but a lot worse than Holy Water, and
they don't have much of an anti-gravity capability either. Maybe it's worth a
try in a desperate situation, because they are better than nothing...
If you want, you can alternate between Daggers and Holy Water to squeeze a
little extra height from a high jump. But doing this is very costly resource-
wise.
Sprint jumps:
Gabriel learns how to Sprint after getting the Cyclone Boots. A jump during a
Sprint is about twice as long as normal, solving many of your long jumping
problems. The increased speed also carries on to double jump and first air
Direct attack. A Sprint double jump is the most common way of clearing long
distances in this game, although still not the best.
Double jumps:
Finally you get Seraphic Wings that allow Gabriel to double jump. Naturally
this helps you jump higher and longer, especially combined with Sprint. You can
also use your second jump after some air attacks, allowing many different jump
combinations that let you move even further than Sprint double jump.
Unlike in something like God of War, double jump does not reset Gabriel's and
his air attacks' air momentum. Kind of a pity, because otherwise we could still
get a lot higher than previously possible.
For some reason backwards double jump doesn't have a speed cap, so if you have
enough room to let Gabriel do the backwards double jump and fall down
afterwards, he eventually moves really fast and can cross the longest of
distances you can cross with just a single jump. Backwards double jumps can be
really useful at best. Also read more below about an applied technique
Backwards High Jump.
Air Grab high jump:
If enemies are around, air grabbing them at the start of the high jump can help
Gabriel get some extra height. This tactic is especially handy in New Game
conditions. §
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC52TcG-QNQ#t=129
Guillotine high jump / Guillotine Ascension (c: satvara)
You know when sometimes collision is shaped so that Gabriel stays hovering in
air if he falls towards it? If you Guillotine towards such collision, Gabriel
will do the downwards motion and attack while leaning towards the small edge of
the collision, being able to stand on it for the duration of the attack even if
he would normally fall off instantly. Then you can follow up with a new
launcher while still standing on that small edge. It's like starting a new
jump, except from higher than before. And you can do this repeatedly at some
places too, eventually getting you incredible height.
Some other attack react positively to small edges of collision and angled
surface as well, like Landslide Punch. Guillotine remains the most useful one
so far, though.
Videos:
1, satvara's example video of this trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw#t=22
Damage Boost Long Jump, AKA "Assisted Long Jump" (c: findlestick)
In spring 2012 another new technique was found by Findlestick. If Gabriel jumps
in a chasm at the very instant a nearby enemy tries to strike him, and then
jumps again after respawning, the enemy's now glitched up strike gives Gabriel
a large momentum boost (and makes him fly long ways through the air).
Apparently Gabriel can also sometimes fly upwards, but it can't be controlled
or reproduced at will. This trick is useful mainly during new game, where your
long jumping tools are not available until later, but it can make your replay
jumps also a lot longer or higher.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjN9V4FB1s
Shoulder Charge long jump (aka "Charged Jump" - c: findlestick)
In July 2013 another technique to give Gabriel significant horizontal air
movement was discovered.
Most ground-move animations - when done off ledges - will continue even as
Gabriel starts falling. Usually nothing special happens, Gabriel just falls
down to his death while doing the move. However if you do a Shoulder Charge off
a ledge, Gabriel will go flying horizontally across gaps. Depending on the
ledge that it's done on, you can get much further distance than your regular
sprint/double-jump. And as a bonus you get your 2nd jump at the end of it.
However, Gabriel loses some height during this technique, so it's less useful
at areas that have death collision placed too close to ledges (like the Music
Box f.e).
To start this glitch, you first have to carefully jump over the small invisible
barrier that's been placed in front of most ledges in this game (possibly to
prevent an exploit like this). Just a normal jump that moves very slightly
forward close to the ledge suffices. Although, it depends on the area how easy
this is to do - in some areas there's more room after the invisible ledge
before you fall down, in some areas there's almost none. Then, just get into a
good position and Shoulder Charge to the direction you want.
The amount of distance you get (& height loss) depends - not only - on the type
of ledge you do the technique, but also on exactly where Gabriel is standing on
any particular ledge. Placing Gabriel's feet only just beyond the ledge barrier
(or on top of it), allows the best distance & lessens height-loss. If you do it
with Gabriel's feet too far over the lip, he tends to drop like a rock. Tho,
there is always the exception to the rule.
You'd think that the good news ends there, but there's more! During a Charged
Jump, the game thinks - to a degree - that Gabriel is still standing on ground.
That means that during a Charged Jump you can do ground moves in air...yes,
even launches. This lets you combine a Charged Jump with a launch+high jump,
which potentially allows Gabriel to get out & up to new out-of-bounds areas.
It also has the added bonus that, should you find an out-of-bounds ledge that
is just too tiny to start a sprint/double jump from, or not enough room to turn
Gabriel around to do a double backwards jump, you can instead do a Charged
Jump. Since it requires no extra movement to start (unlike the other long
jumps).
Most ground moves can be done in air through this exploit. It seems that you
can't block in air, though, and therefore some prompts that start with a block
can't be used - for example another Shoulder Charge. Ultimate Light and
Ultimate Shadow also have some kind of restraint on them so that you can't do
them in air. Otherwise, feel free to experiment with combos and other actions
while falling down... you can even shatter a Dark Crystal while falling to a
chasm!
It's useful to note that there is actually another move in the game that allows
a similar horizontal air movement effect when done off ledges, and that is
Ground Cutter. It doesn't seem to be as effective as far as pure movement goes,
but at least it doesn't cost any Shadow magic, and could be easier to do at
some ledges than the predominant Shoulder Charge variation. Might be a viable
alternative in some cases.
Videos:
1, findlestick's example of using Shoulder Charge jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Zu2BhZ2Yo
2, findlestick's example of ground moves in air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chiWM9bw1Es#t=129
Backwards High Jump: (c: findlestick)
Using your second jump to do a Backwards Jump – during the latter part of a
High Jump technique – lets you do an alternate type of High Jump technique. The
Backwards High Jump. The technique in its most basic form is this. Start Sprint
in some direction and jump once, or start a half-launch, followed by swiftly
turning your back to the direction you want to go. Then swiftly do a Direct Air
Attack, Avalanche Punch, Area Air Attack followed by a Backwards Jump. This
combination must be done swiftly to optimise Gabriel's rising-momentum.
This is quite basic in principle, but the properties of a Wings Backwards Jump
makes the technique quite useful. One factor that makes this a useful High Jump
when going over walls is that, when Gabriel is flying Backwards during a Wings
Jump. Any upper-parts of walls that his legs hit, actually make him zip over
the top of them. In fact, to me it seems that his momentum can accrue when
hitting edges of certain collisions as he flies backwards.
If Backwards High Jump in its most basic form – as described above – won't get
you over an obstacle. Then simply rise higher with other High Jump methods
before using your second jump to do the Backwards Jump. Although this jump
ultimately doesn't seem to get you as high as a regular Gauntlet/Holy Water
High Jump does. It does have some advantages over standard High Jumps:
Advantages:
-you can save Holy Water by getting over some obstacles that would normally
require the use of Holy Water to get over.
-it is extremely fast and easy to do.
-you can jump over loading triggers.
-you can nimbly change directions mid-jump.
-it has a good finisher.
-you may zip over or around the edges of walls/collisions you come in contact
with.
-it doubles as a type of Long Jump.
Disadvantages:
-you can't seem to get as High.(?)
Videos:
1. Backwards High Jump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIucjowNphA
For now that's everything about high jumps. Next up: other techniques.
Holy Cross break-outs (c: AKheon)
For some miraculous reason, the recovery phase of Holy Cross can mess up other
animations, creating break-outs and graphical glitches. It is an easy glitch to
do at its most basic: just cast Holy Cross, and examine something while the
light is shining from the cross. The glitch effect should automatically happen
then. But remember that not all prompt have a real glitch effect to them.
List of things that are affected by the glitch...
+ you can have Ark of Brotherhood chests open without being tied down to them.
+ same thing with wall switches like in the Sewers.
+ same thing with ground switches like at Chromatic Observatory device.
+ same thing with special plot item corpses, like again at Chromatic
Observatory.
+ same thing with collectables like the cylinders at Music Box.
+ sawing prompts cause Gabriel to move to the right spot, but then nothing
happens and the prompt becomes inoperable afterwards.
+ other unique level-specific prompts may become glitched too. These are listed
at level-by-level sections below.
List of things not affected...
- normal corpse examination just cancels and nothing happens through this
glitch.
- same with those wheels you use the Stake to open.
- and all sorts of wheels and cranks that you have to rotate.
- grip points seem immune to real glitching.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fva4LgyrBSk
Enemy grab and mount glitching with Holy Cross:
At summer 2012 it was found that you can also glitch the enemy mount and grab
animations using Holy Cross, although the procedure is slightly different from
normal - and far more difficult. Since you can't cancel to a grab from Holy
Cross, you have to first let go of Holy Cross as you are casting it, and then
frame precisely grab the foe almost instantly afterwards. This is enough to
cause the glitch. However, it doesn't work whenever a grab prompt leads to a
cutscene, so keep that in mind.
Normal enemies' grabs fizzle in a bit unremarkable way. For example,
Lycanthropes and Goblins are lifted up in air, like in their normal grab, but
with Gabriel loose and physically free to do other things during this time.
Unfortunately the grab doesn't finish like this - instead it just cuts off and
the enemy is safely set back on ground. There's a list below that lists the
effects this glitch has on the grabs of normal enemies... mounts are a
different chapter altogether, though, and the remaining paragraphs are devoted
to them.
So, with a mount. It's clear when you've successfully started the glitch
because the grab mini-game begins jarringly from the middle of the animation.
Now you have two choices, either fail or win the mini-game. Both have their own
outcomes.
Winning the mini-game, the camera sets itself behind the mount in a pretty cool
way. Unfortunately there's but a moment you have until the mount freezes on its
tracks and then you have no choice but to retry from the last checkpoint to
regain control of Gabriel. No buttons work, other than the menus... too bad,
this camera would've been cool to use in actual gameplay.
Losing the mini-game, something highly unexpected happens (Trolls, Warthogs &
Wargs). After being thrown off, Gabriel reappears on the foe's back, but... the
foe can't be controlled! The foe continues his usual A.I.-driven antics, trying
to attack Gabriel, but mostly in vain because Gabriel is too far away on the
mount's back to reach. The mount can rarely try to grab Gabriel, despite
Gabriel riding it... strange scenarios indeed. Winning or losing this grab
doesn't matter: afterwards Gabriel re-appears on the mount's back with
sometimes an even stranger pose than before. Nothing seems to make sense any
more.
Well, you can issue some commands to the mount, mainly what attacks to use (by
using the main buttons, but it doesn't always work). These orders actually
cancel the monster's own attacks, sometimes looking a bit weird. You can also
kill your mount using the prompt for it, but it doesn't work very well. After
falling down, the mount instantly appears back up, as if nothing had happened.
Unfortunately you don't get exp or Magic from killing your mount over and over,
would've been exploitable.
If you "kill" a Warg mount during a grab attempt, the grab becomes cancelled
and some new effects happen.
Cancelling the grab later on, Gabriel just becomes disattached from the mount.
The mount is also dazed, vulnerable to being instantly grabbed again. This is
an useful variation because otherwise there'd be no way to end this mounting
glitch, and you'd always have to retry after messing around with it.
Cancelling the grab early on, the same thing happens with Gabriel becoming
loose from the mount, but the camera now starts following the mount instead of
Gabriel, as if it was the main character! If the mount dies now, the camera
sort of normalizes itself to a position close to Gabriel. Almost like a normal
camera angle, but closer. Like all camera glitches, it becomes fixed if you
start grab mini-games or other scenes activate, etc.
If your mount dies during this glitch, Gabriel just falls down to the ground in
the pose he was in and remains stuck.
In the level Agharta (2-5) you can drop yourself into a chasm while riding a
mount, causing the "dying" state to stay on indefinitely, complete with
graphical effects obscuring the background and everything remaining
monochromatic! This is probably because you normally can't die while riding a
beast. Gabriel actually becomes mostly immortal to damage during this time,
with only grab damage harming him, and he remains unaffected by death surface
too. It's an interesting state, but it won't carry over a checkpoint or leaving
a level. Only time will tell if you can do anything useful with it...
I wonder if there remains another move with which to glitch grabs, causing for
example the glitch of Gremlins getting stuck to Gabriel's side.
Videos:
1, "Warg Mount Glitches pt. 1" by AKheon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om7fkqtd4zo
2. more, with the death scene glitch as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2CsM-wub8
3, Troll mount glitches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Ih9O5RPFU
4, Warthog and Spider mount glitches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyGHwpg1aY
List of Holy Cross grab animation glitches (c: AKheon)
-Normal Lycanthropes, if grabbed with his glitch, will start hovering in air by
themselves for a moment before they land safely and resume their normal
behavior.
-Swamp Troll's finisher QTE can't be glitched, apparently. The grab doesn't
begin in the least.
-Wargs are Mounts and their glitches have been described above.
-Goblins are the same as Lycanthropes.
-Trolls also work like Mounts.
-Giant Spiders are basically mounts, but their glitch effect is a bit unique.
Winning the prompt causes Gabriel to become stuck, like with Wargs. Losing the
prompt causes Gabriel to become immortal, as if he was safe on top of the
mount, although he is actually free to move and hasn't mounted the Spider.
Usual effects, like immunity to death collision.
-Warthogs also work like Mounts.
-Greater Lycanthropes have a quite stylish glitch effect. The death QTE starts
on the enemy's part while Gabriel is free to frolic in the vicinity. The QTE
inevitably fails at the final hit, but camera remains glitched indefinitely
afterwards.
-This doesn't seem to work with Gremlins.
-Swordmasters have numerous grab reactions: two for if you grab them at a wrong
time, close range and long range, and then their finishing move grab. Well, you
can't do very fancy glitching with Swordmasters regardless. The long range
wrong time grab starts but then fizzles out. The short range wrong time grab
and finishing grab won't glitch at all, it seems.
-Witch Childs haven't been tested yet.
-Ghouls and Vampires are lifted into air by themselves, but then the grabs
fizzle out unremarkably.
-Animated Armors' finishing grab starts, but soon fizzles out.
-Brauner's finishing QTE can be glitched. The first hits of the grab succeed
automatically even without any prompts and with Gabriel free to move during
this time as he wishes, but the last hit acts strangely. Brauner gets stuck in
a sort of repeated motion while the camera is stuck. You have no choice but to
do a normal grab on Brauner to end the glitch to continue.
Also, I could've sworn I once managed to glitch Brauner's sword throwing prompt
as well with Holy Cross, so that he got hit with the sword with Gabriel free to
move... nothing special, I guess.
-Mandragoras work like other small enemies. Their grab starts but fizzles out
in
a moment.
-Deadly Toys' finishing grab doesn't become glitched at all.
-Olrox's final grab doesn't seem to glitch up.
-Mechanical Monstrosity II's finishing grab can be glitched. The boss takes
some
hits, then the grab fizzles and everything is back to normal... with the
exception of the glitched camera.
-Vampire Lord's mid-fight grab is affected by the glitch. Basically, it works
until a few hits in, then it fizzles out, and the Vampire Lord goes back to
being stunned.
-Scarecrows' final grab can be glitched. It starts mid-way through without
Gabriel participating. Then it fizzles out and the Scarecrow goes back to being
normally stunned.
-Headless Burrowers haven't been tested yet.
-The Silver Knight's first phase grab glitches up. At first things work out
like
normal, but at the part where you mash a button, the Knight gets stuck in a
silly looking pose. The camera is stuck during this time as well. Of course,
since you normally don't have Light Magic during this part, if you want to see
this variation you need to use cheats.
-The Silver Knight's second phase grab also glitches up. The grab goes all the
way through automatically, without you having to press anything in the process.
Pretty neat.
-Creeping Coffin's grab (non-coffin) fizzles out almost immediately, and is not
a very interesting sight. Grabbing while it's inside the coffin produces more
interesting results, as the mini-game sort of starts for a moment, but then it
fizzles out too.
-Zombies work like Lycanthropes and other small enemies.
-The Gravedigger's finishing grab glitches up. The grab begins like normal
until
the second-to-last hit, and then it fizzles out. It's pretty unique to see
Gravedigger stand stunned in the middle of the arena instead of the walls like
normally, but grabbing him here just transports him and Gabriel to the edges
like usual. So it doesn't seem to cause additional glitches.
-Necromancer grab doesn't seem to glitch up?
Videos:
1, AKheon's compilation vid of many of the grabs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtyDQFD_Gs
Passing through cutscene triggers (c: findlestick)
Apparently, doing Shoulder Charge from a certain distance to a cutscene trigger
can make Gabriel go past that trigger without it activating. At this date we
have only gotten it to work at some cutscenes. And at that, only the ones that
you can normally skip by selecting the option to do so in the menu. But it
takes nearly as long to charge the Shoulder Charge & activate it, as it does to
skip it normally.
Recently findlestick has managed to stop enemies from spawning at the start of
Veros Woods by doing a Shoulder Charge through their "appearance triggers".
Finding where these triggers are, involves listening to the PS3's loading
sounds as Gabriel moves towards areas where you know enemies will spawn. When
you know the location of the trigger, Shoulder Charge through it to get this
result (at least at Veros Woods). Proper testing hasn't yet been done at other
parts of the game, or at other triggers that load other data.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=211
Glitching up cutscenes with Dark Crystal:
Using Dark Crystal before cutscenes has a few interesting effects.
If used before a cinematic, skippable cutscene, like most story-related
cutscenes in the game, the pre-rendered Dark Crystal summoning video (FMV)
starts during the cutscene. After it ends, the cyclone effect starts while the
scene plays on, looking pretty funny. Some other unique, strange effects may
also happen, like in Chapter 1-1, where a post-scene mini-game begins early
during the scene itself.
Having the Crystal summoning FMV appear during a cinematic scene also makes the
cinematic scene unskippable - going to menu reveals that the option to skip
video is gone, instead the normal menu options are there, like retrying from
checkpoint and such. However, it seems that even if you retry suddenly in this
circumstance (never intended by the game), not much interesting stuff occurs.
A common drawback to this trick is that afterwards Gabriel will be frozen in
one spot. You can't move him or do anything with him, and this state won't end
even if an enemy attacks him. You always have to retry to continue, sadly.
Another type of cutscene is a subtler scene that you can't skip through the
menu. These can be glitched up with Dark Crystal as well. If you're trying to
break the Dark Crystal as the scene is starting, the breaking is interrupted
and Gabriel is suddenly free to move during the scene. If you keep holding the
sub-weapon button down for longer, the scene itself cancels in a way. (c:
satvara)
For now the use of this glitch remains with timed cutscenes, since those are
the only type of cutscenes you can slip a Dark Crystal breaking to coincide
with. If we could have Gabriel move while he is breaking a Dark Crystal, well,
that would be a bit different story. Also, if we could cause delayed damage to
enemies, we could break a Crystal right as a boss is damaged enough to have
some cutscene start... unfortunately Light Fairies are not cut out for that
kind of thing, as unreliable as they are.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of glitching up cutscenes in the first levels of the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLDw6fhUgc
Weapons & Magic:
General info
Unlike what you'd expect after playing other games of this type, Dante's
Inferno, God of War, Devil May Cry, you name it, your magic gauges - the most
comparable thing to a superpowered special mode in this game - do not deplete
by themselves while they're on. They only deplete if...
- you attack and the attack hits anything
- you do a special attack powered by Magic (like Holy Jump)
- you heal poisoning using Light Magic
The difference between Light and Shadow is pretty clear. Light Magic allows you
to heal and protect yourself and do some crowd control. Light Magic is also
economic, as its specials don't drain that much magic. Shadow Magic on the
other hand gives you extra damage (and sometimes speed) at any cost. Its
specials can be surprisingly Magic draining, but at least flashy. Your normal
attacks also become unblockable and cause easier stuns.
With most Magic specials, like Holy Cross, you can turn the Magic-mode off
right as the move starts, allowing you to do the special without any Magic-mode
active. However, this doesn't stop the consumption of Magic by the special
move, and you actually lose any Magic-specific benefits for the move, like
gaining life with Light Magic. You also might be able to switch from Light to
Shadow, or the other way around, as the move starts, if you hadn't purchased
the counterpart Magic already. Should be tested. §
A. General Moves
Nothing yet...!
B.Combat Cross
After getting the Spiked Chain upgrade, Gabriel can mount ridable enemies. You
may try it out even in the early levels like Hunting Path.
If you interrupt the first hit of Chain Barrier with sub-item use or blocking,
your next chain attack has a small graphical glitch in it. The chain basically
appears at a strange spot first before the actual attack starts, nothing big.
Guillotine is an air move that brings Gabriel down pretty quickly in a swirling
motion. Upon contact with ground, Gabriel does the actual attack, slamming the
chain down with all his might. The actual attack also activates if Gabriel hits
even the slightest amount of collision on the way, temporarily allowing him to
stand on teeny bits of collision where he normally can't stand, or sometimes a
certain type of angled surface. It can be used to climb walls occasionally,
read more about in the Guillotine Ascension section at high jumps.
Also, getting hit by death collision (like in pits) at a certain point of
Guillotine animation, Gabriel does a slightly glitchy somersault falling down.
Gabriel looks like he leaves ground during Chain Barrier finisher, but he
actually does not. His collision remains on ground level and only the character
model does the leap.
B. Light Magic
Light Flash is a surprisingly useful move. Basically, if you do a precise
counter with Light Magic active, there's this slo-mo light flash and a little
of your Light Magic drains away. Enemies nearby can become stunned and
stationary, and best of all, the next physical attack you do to a stunned enemy
does multiplied damage. You can deal up to 800 dmg in an instant with a charged
Tremor Punch... and 1000 dmg with Ultimate Shadow! And 2000 dmg with Dark
Crystal!!! Quite useful.
Unfortunately not all enemies become stunned by Light Flash, like Warthogs.
Not all attacks do multiple damage and end the stunned state. For example Holy
Cross does its normal damage and the enemies' stun continues.
Holy Cross is an attack during which you are stationary and you shoot an ever-
widening beam of light. At its maximum reach the arc of the beam is almost 180
degrees, demolishing pretty much everything in front of the main character.
For some reason the move has a glitchy hidden effect too: most R1-animations
become interrupted or otherwise glitched by Holy Cross' recovery phase. For
example the switches at sewers become pulled without Gabriel physically
touching them, and you actually save seconds this way. Mounts can also be
glitched. There's an own section for the glitch somewhere above...
If Gabriel falls down a cliff in the middle of Holy Cross, the light effect of
the attack remains at the top while Gabriel himself goes down.
Holy Jump not only affects normal Double Jump but also Upwards Guillotine and
Whirlwind Flap. Keep that in mind when doing a combo as this move costs a hefty
amount of Magic each time...
Ultimate Light is a very high priority attack, so high priority that it cancels
out almost every other ground attack in the game. It even cancels Dark Crystal
charging animation, allowing you to do a pretty wicked camera glitch with it.
There's more about it below.
You can also cancel out of damage taking animations with Ultimate Light, and
hover over swamp surface with it. A move with many uses...
If you move into death collision like Music Box fire traps in Ultimate Light-
mode, the slow, dramatic death scene of Gabriel flying backwards does not
occur. Instead, gameplay very quickly resumes from where the game would've left
off had the scene been played.
If you keep tapping Light Magic on and off rapidly after getting Ultimate
Light, the attack too flickers on and off at a rapid pace, looking (not to
mention, sounding) strange.
C. Shadow Magic
Shadow Flames is the Shadow equivalent of Holy Cross. It deals more damage
while having a much more narrow stream, so it is harder to hit enemies with it.
You also can't glitch stuff with it (as far as we know) so it is automatically
worse in any case!
If you cast Exploding Quake and run out of Shadow Magic while the multiple
small explosions shake the ground, the magic activation sound and the fiery
graphical effect around Gabriel will go on and off repeatedly, as if the
ongoing attack forced the Shadow-mode to stay on despite you have no magic
left.
Ultimate Shadow is the Shadow equivalent to Ultimate Light... but in effect
quite a different type of move. Just holding the magic-button down causes
Gabriel to enter a sort of stance where he slowly flails his chain in a quite
devilish looking way. This stance is very high priority and cuts off almost
every other attack in its wake. For some reason near some switches and other
examinable objects the speed of the Ultimate Shadow stance doubles.
While it's a similar move than Shoulder Charge, Ultimate Shadow doesn't work
the same way when done into a chasm. The game does its best to prevent Gabriel
from falling down, and progressing beyond where the floor ends seems
impossible.
Using Ultimate Shadows near triggers where a map switches to another, Gabriel
will eventually be left to the wrong side of the trigger - meaning he is
technically out of bounds. In some maps there is no collision past the trigger,
meaning you can go literally out of bounds, but in some maps it just looks
weird but you can't do anything with it. (c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=153
D. Silver Daggers
Your basic projectile attack in this game that you get in Chapter 1-1. Extra
effective against Lycanthropes and some other small enemies, like Gremlins.
You can do a charged version that acts as a shockwave that hits many enemies at
once at the price of 5 daggers.
With Shadow Magic on, the dagger projectile turns into Explosive Dagger. It
does more damage, but won't gain an area effect or anything like that.
E. Dark Crystals
Dark Crystal is a small-scale weapon of mass destruction you get from Chapter
2-7. Once used, it breaks, and a cutscene shows a horrific creature being
summoned. Then a cyclone wreaks havoc on Gabriel's surroundings, doing massive
damage to all enemies on the screen.
The cinematic close-up camera can be kept with you using a glitch. Start
charging the Dark Crystal but have Ultimate Light/Shadow interrupt it right as
the zoom-in begins. Gabriel should break out of the Crystal animation, and in
turn the nauseating cinematic camera will stay on indefinitely! This makes
normal playing look quite interesting... However, the camera fixes itself at
QTE's and pre-rendered cutscenes, among other things, so playing the entire
game through in this camera mode is not possible.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgmbXveaNSk
Utilizing Dark Crystals before a cutscene has a few interesting effects. Those
were documented already, above...
F. Fairies
You get Fairies from Chapter 3-1. They're in their normal form a tool of
distraction: a Fairy you send out to the field will distract an enemy for a
period of time, at the cost of its life.
Light Fairies are a damaging tool instead, hitting enemies twice before self-
destructing for a pretty good damage. They drain a lot of Light Magic each time
when cast, regardless of if they hit anything or just promptly return to
Gabriel's pocket. They're normally fairly reliable, but if the enemy you'd like
them to hit is already damaged or near death, they become nearly useless. They
just won't target a foe like that. They also won't target some boss enemies.
Sometimes Light Fairies may self-destruct without hitting a target. This
especially happens if a large number of Light Fairies is targeting a single
foe.
If you send a Light Fairy against a possible but invulnerable target, they just
keep flying through it repeatedly. Possible for example if an enemy glitches up
and becomes immortal.
G. Holy Water Flasks
Holy Water is acquired from Chapter 5-5. It's a crowd control projectile that
is extremely damaging against the undead. It is also well documented as a tool
in high jumping, but you can read all about it in the high jumps section above.
When cast with Light Magic active, Gabriel throws the Holy Water towards his
feet instead and you also get a free protective shield around Gabriel that
lasts for about 15 seconds. This Divine Shield eats up normal attacks until it
wears out, and it even protects against unblockable attacks. Keeping it active
can allow you to skip some otherwise mandatory fights in the game. For example,
all those times where there's a crank you need to turn but enemies keep
hassling you. Just cast Divine Shield and with luck you can turn the crank
before the enemies get a hit in.
You may've expected this, but Divine Shield does not protect you from death
collision like chasms and Music Box traps.
H. Dark Gauntlet
It's a gauntlet-type weapon that you get at the end of Chapter 2. Slow but
powerful attacks that you can charge to make even more powerful are the name of
the game. There's also a Shadow-version of all Dark Gauntlet moves - they are
quite powerful, but costly, and can't be further charged.
Aside the use in high jumping, Avalanche Punch can allow Gabriel to rarely
breach through some walls in the game. Should find more spots where it is
doable...
Doing a Shoulder Charge through some cutscene triggers makes Gabriel go through
the trigger undected. Thus skipping the cutscene, however it either doesn't
work at all cutscenes, or the difficulty varies with each location. There's
more info about this above in the general tricks.
I. Cyclone Boots
Boots that give you some new powers, including Sprinting ability. You get them
from Chapter 3-2.
During a Sprint, Gabriel takes about 6 long steps at a much higher pace than
normal. The additional speed carries over to your jumps, but to not much else.
You also get a few extra attack to your disposal during a Sprint, after you've
purchased them of course. Sprint may suddenly die down if you run over uneven
floor collision, which can be a bother. It also dies down if you activate
Magics or try to slow down in any way.
There's a glitch involving Sprint. Sometimes after a Shoulder Charge your
Sprints become liable to restart if you ram into a wall. This allows you to run
against walls a bit differently than normal, with Sprint restarting up to
several times a second. So far it's not helped in breaching walls at all,
though. But it is also useful wheneven you have to run on top of some uneven
collision that would normally shut down your Sprint very easily.
Occasionally the visual effect of Sprint can become stuck on Gabriel. This
seems to happen if you interrupt Sprint at a certain frame by examining
something, for example.
J. Seraph Shoulders
A relic that gives Gabriel a variety of air-related powers, such as double
jump. You finally get this useful tool at Chapter 8-4.
Backwards double jumping doesn't appear to have a speed cap, unlike forward or
sideways jumping. So if you do a backwards double jump and steer exactly
towards Gabriel's back through the entire jump, you'll see your speed increase
quite rapidly towards the end, before hitting the ground. The effect is the
greater the longer you have Gabriel fall down.
If you do jumps or launches at places with very low ceiling, Gabriel may drop
down partially inside ground as he falls. This state fixes itself quite quickly
if you just start moving or doing attacks.
About general mechanisms
Cranks:
It seems on occasion many people have managed to start turning rotating cranks
without them even having the handle intact.
Videos:
1, ronnielain's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfXrc_W9P8
Rarely it seems you can get similar kind of strange momentum boost after
turning the crank with enemies around as in the "Assisted Long Jump".
Chasms and death collision:
There's a mechanism that changes the end of your air attacks depending on how
close to the ground you are. For example, doing first Direct air attack at
normal jumping height has Gabriel enter an elegant landing animation straight
from it. Doing it higher has him enter a generic pose for the longer fall. But
over a bottomless pit, Gabriel is sent plummeting down to his death so suddenly
it looks like a glitch. This mechanism doesn't really limit your options, but
it does force you to be more careful at times, especially using the exemplary
first air Direct attack anywhere near a pit.
The typical death slo-mo before respawning is omitted if you hit death
collision during some attacks. Nothing special, I guess.
It's fairly common for Gabriel to fall through death collision for a reason or
another. Can happen if you fall off those spider's web balancing threads, or
possibly even by doing attacks at a correct time.
Grapple points:
Sometimes you can keep a bit of some moves' momentum as you take hold of a
grapple point. A good example is the Somersault. By starting a Somersault and
latching onto the grapple point, Gabriel's extra momentum can whisk him aside,
even through nearby walls at first, until the grapple's normal trajectory takes
hold. For now there's not much use for this fact.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid (from 01:17 on):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YSIfxsWUY
Mounts:
You can glitch up mounting enemies using, you guessed it, Holy Cross. There's
more about it in the above sections.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
In rare circumstances you can breach a wall after landing down from a mount.
See Chapter 2-4 for a sequence break that uses this trick. We still don't have
all the details for this trick, it should be tested further. §
If Warthog demounts are done on sloped collision, Gabriel can momentarily stand
in air at its completion. This lets you start a jump from higher up than you
normally should. See Chapter 5-1 for a minor sequence break that uses this
trick.
Swamps:
If jumping is not an option for some reason, you can also do Ultimate Light and
that way glide over the surface of the swamp as long as you have Magic with no
problems. You can easily go out of bounds in Titan Graveyard doing this as you
can move much further in swamp without dying than the developers ever
anticipated!
After you get double jump, you can cause a slight glitch by hitting swamp (both
normal and poisonous) right as you do your second jump: Gabriel flies through
the air in his slowly shuffling mudwalk in a not too graceful way. If it was
poison fog you did this trick with, the game considers him to be choking until
he lands on solid ground.
Spider web:
At some levels there are threads of spider web strung out across chasms, and
you can use them to get across... much like balancing beams. Walking off them
at a small angle can cause Gabriel to fall down to his death, but still in the
balancing pose. The thread also falls at his pace because it appears it is
programmed to remain on Gabriel's feet's height when he is balancing on top of
it.
Sometimes falling on spider's web Gabriel falls through the death collision
into nothingness. But this can happen in other circumstances too, it's not a
too rare occurence.
The same glitch effect of double jumping right as you touch the swamp surface
applies here: Gabriel does a small jump in the balancing beam pose. You can't
do much this trick. Holding R2 in air does nothing, and falling into a chasm
while in the pose does nothing.
You can Ultimate Light over these Webs to get past them quicker. Double jumping
is also an option, but not always, as there is generally too much invisible
collision around spider webs.
Enemy glitches:
Sometimes enemies can get some A.I. flaw and get stuck somewhere. Basic things
like that.
Holy Cross breakouts are the biggest single glitch you can do with enemies, but
those were already covered far above.
If you launch an enemy against a crooked wall, they can get stuck falling
against it forever. For example, Small Trolls at Chapter 4-1, if you Air Grab
them and fling them towards a wall this way.
Sometimes an enemy can become immortal. You drain all its HP, but it still
doesn't die. All subsequent hits stop making any damage and there's not much
about you can do the foe in this case.
It seems that if you attempt to grab a vulnerable enemy right as he is about to
recover from being stunned, he might revive all of a sudden after the grab
mini-game.
If you kill a Creeping Coffin right as it is about to enter a coffin, it might
die while transforming. What happens is that the Creeping Coffin will become
completely idle and invulnerable, just standing there endlessly. Fortunately
the game registers this enemy as dead, so you don't get stuck because of this
glitch.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of the enemy reviving glitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk
2, findlestick's vid of the Creeping Coffin glitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=14
3. Level-by-levels
- Sequence break: skipping a part of the level
- Speedrun strategy: fastest possible tactics for a given situation
- Battle exploit: a trick that makes a fight cheaper
- Collision flaw: something wrong with the collisions of the game
- Wasted potential: a cool idea that doesn't work out
- Mystery: an intriguing, yet unexplained occurence
- Untested: something awaiting to be tested
- Other: doesn't go into any category above
Note: If a skip says (full power) after it, it means that it requires gear that
you only get later on in the game, and so the skip can only be done in replay
(or New Game+) mode. However, the later in the game we go, the more the line
blurs between having full powers or not. Some skips marked (full power) may
actually be doable in New Game conditions as well.
Note 2: out of curiosity and fun, the flavor texts that you see in the Pause-
menu during the levels were listed as well, in chronological order.
1-1: Besieged Village
"Gabriel fought the horde of Lycanthropes in the hope of freeing the small
village from the siege."
Other (full power): if you go out of bounds here and fall to the platform
beneath the level, you can see a strange glowing "crank" or "ledge" hovering in
the air. You can grab hold of its side, but it serves no foreseeable purpose.
Going out of bounds, you basically leave the villagers to fend off against the
Lycanthropes for themselves. Fortunately they're strong enough to win this
fight without you! If they do win while you're falling OOB, everything returns
normal when the next cutscene of Great Warg kicks in.
Other / Wasted potential (full power): if you use Dark Crystal right before the
scene of Great Warg appearing, the scene glitches up. The mini-game that starts
the boss fight occurs inside the cinematic cutscene, and eventually you see two
Wargs during the cutscene! If you press buttons, you may actually warp to the
final cutscene of the fight directly... unfortunately doing this, Gabriel
becomes frozen afterwards, so you can't save time with it.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLDw6fhUgc
"The Great Warg destroyed the wooden fence as if it was made of paper, and
leapt onto Gabriel for the kill."
Wasted potential: it seems that the Warg fight finale cutscene (before you use
stake) won't begin while the Dark Crystal cutscene is starting. This prevents
potential glitchy effects.
Wasted potential (full power): the prompt of the stake can't be glitched with
Holy Cross? Everything seems to work as normal even if you try it.
1-2: Hunting Path
"As they raced through the forest, Gabriel and his mysterious companion heard
the baying of the Wargs chasing them."
"Gabriel fell from the horse. He would have to hold his ground until his
mysterious friend returned."
Random: it's the only level where the horse mount is used.
Speed strategy: it's fastest to just drop off your horse as quickly as
possible. If you spam a button during the QTE prompt, you fail even quicker
than if you'd just wait it out. You need to fall two times and fight two
fights, after which the level is over.
Other: if you use a Dark Crystal as a fight ends and a cutscene starts,
afterwards Gabriel is not transported back on horse but instead stays in the
forest clearing completely frozen up. You have to retry to continue.
If you this before the cutscene that ends the level, you will not finish the
level after the scenes. Instead, a glitched pause- or level-finish menu comes
up that has no text in it! If you go to the menu now, things fix up, and you'll
see that all along Gabriel was just frozen in the forest clearing. And you have
to retry again.
Video demonstration:
1, see the above vid
1-3: The Dead Bog
"Mosquitos and insects buzzed everywhere in the damp ground of the Dead Bog."
"Raising their weapons, some Goblins leapt from their hideouts to ambush
Gabriel for trespassing on their land."
Sequence break (full power): skipping first Goblins fight
Simply jump over the invisible wall separating you from the swampy paths ahead
you, or... well, more literally *behind* you because that's how the camera
works in this fight. You need to start the jump towards the wall nearest to the
camera. The wall is quite low and shouldn't be a hassle to cross even without
using Holy Water. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBDX1Yw27g
Sequence break (full power): you can skip the cutscene at the small island by
doing a Shoulder Charge long jump over it, from on top of the collision that
you end up on if you are doing the above-mentioned skip.
"The mud was slowly swallowing Gabriel, but the quicksand was not the only
problem facing him here..."
Sequence break (full power): skipping the tree fight
You normally have to uproot a tree with the goblin grenades to progress. But if
you have full power, you may also just high jump over the high (!) invisible
wall in front of the tree. You need to take everything out of your jump for it
to work. However, it takes nearly as long to get over it than it does to do
this section normally.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8
Sequence break (full power): skipping Swamp Troll
This boss fight can be skipped with full power. Instead of climbing inside the
mausoleum, do a high jump to the roof of the mausoleum near from where you
climb inside. Now you can get to the Swamp Troll boss arena early, with no boss
present. Then you have to do another high jump to get over the invisible wall
separating you from the next path - you know, where the Grip Point would appear
after beating the boss. (c: satvara)
Findlestick has another route for this area. You start the high jump from in
front of the mausoleum. This way you retain a better camera angle, and are able
to coordinate a Shoulder Charge long jump towards the next area. You end up on
the path before the final platforming sequence of the level.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-Vr3gLIsw
2, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ES3ga3rvP0
"The lonely steps of Gabriel echoed in the empty mausoleum."
Wasted potential (full power): you always have to pick up Hook Tip, even if you
have it on replay, to activate the Grip Point at the window.
"The large Swamp Troll ripped up a stone statue and tried to smash Gabriel with
it."
Sequence break (full power): skipping Swamp Troll
You can also skip this boss after having started the fight, again jumping over
the exit wall. But it is more of a hassle now with the Troll doing his
trollsome things in the vicinity.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqFVL7VHcA
"A large chasm separated Gabriel from the forest Guardian's temple."
Speed strategy (full power): you can just double jump over the fence after the
troll fight. No need to use the Grip Point.
Speed strategy (full power): the last platforming section is laden with
invisible walls, but it is still possible do to a nice shortcut with double
jump at where you first have to start climbing down. There's a wide invisible
wall that you have to curve around with your jumps. If all should work out, you
land on collision you're normally not supposed to reach that's above the
climbing walls below. From there you can Sprint double jump directly past the
swinging Grip Point and get to the level finale in no time.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid (at the second half of this vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-Vr3gLIsw
1-4: Pan's Forest
"The peaceful and magical forest surrounded Gabriel with a mantle of lush
vegetation and watchful eyes."
Wasted potential: you can partially break out of examining the runes by using
the Holy Cross glitch, which saves some seconds per examination, perhaps. But
you don't really need to do this because the rune order for the green barrier
is always the same, and you can just memorize it and never bother with the
runes at all after the first time.
Wasted potential: there's the Ark of Brotherhood here, which you could get to
early using the Gauntlet high jump... if only there wasn't a big invisible wall
on the way. The wall only goes away after you get Wings.
"This was a sacred place. A place that would be lost to mankind before long."
Other: It's somehow possible to glitch the fairy cutscene after having
completed the puzzle. It doesn't seem to be any harder than going to the Pause-
menu at a wrong time: the fairy suddenly flies away to a strange direction,
never to be seen again, and you get stuck in the scene that never resolved
properly. Try at your own risk.
Video demonstration:
1, TheNoSkill's video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6gEVSIEDfA
Other: It's possible to get out-of-bounds with a simple double jump!
However...this is useless since it's done after you've solved the puzzle. Near
the base of the spiralling stairs...
1, mish9volt's video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPEBxvHzDk
"Before him was his beloved Marie and a test that would require all of his
wits, if he was to save her."
1-5: Oblivion Lake
"A cold, chill wind blowed through Gabriel's heart as he entered Oblivion
Lake."
Wasted potential: you can high jump out of bounds at the start of the level,
but this probably can't be used for anything.
"The Ice Titan tried to crush Gabriel under its massive fists."
Speed strat (full power): you can break a Dark Crystal to heavily damage the
Ice Titan. It seems to reduce hit points in all of the Titan's runes to
minimum, so that only one hit will destroy them after that.
"Gabriel grasped onto the slippery surface of the Ice Titan for dear life."
2-1: Enchanted Forest
"And so it begins, he delved towards the remains of an ancient civilization, as
old as the forest itself."
Other: this level has a few noteworthy things different in it during New Game+.
The entire Light Medallion tutorial and later on, the part where you have to
pick up the Focus scroll and fight a Warg are skipped.
Sequence break (full power): Cliff Skip
You can do a jump that ends with some Holy Water lugging to conveniently land
on top of the invisible wall in front of you, then do a sprint jump to some
strange floor in the sky right up ahead. From there it's very easy to just get
to the next checkpoint and skip all the climbing here. (c: satvara)
Another way is that you can do a basic gauntlet high jump over the wall to the
left as near as the camera as you can. You should land on some floor. From
there, the cliffside is sprinkled with hazardous collision you can use to jump
your way blindly until you get past the death collision to the next area. Or,
find a clear spot you can use to do a sprint jump to get through with a higher
chance of success. Takes more effort that the above strategy, but should be
faster in a speedrun if done optimally, and it costs no Holy Water to do. (c:
AKheon)
You can double jump past the death collision while falling down the cliffs.
This method might be overall the fastest, but some air for speculation remains.
(c: findlestick)
Another version is to do a Shoulder Charge long jump from on top of the
invisible wall mentioned in version 1 (above) towards a large tree that's
visible in the background. There is a large area of collision that you can
stand on located there. From there do another Shoulder Charge long jump in a
North/Westerly direction, followed by your double jump. If done correctly,
Gabriel will end up at the Neutral orb fountain. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Txt7lGofOY
2, AKheon's vid of the alternative strategy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RiQD2FLOaQ
3, findlestick's vid of his strategy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6dgaYqGkoQ
4, findle's Charged Jump method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw34Fe1OZgE
On normal play (without all powers) there exists some time savers as well.
After jumping down to the first cliff below and hanging onto its ledge, you
can, instead of rappelling down, drop down the length needed to find the next
grapple point. In some cases it's even possible to grap the next grapple point
during the fall itself.
"Gabriel had the Light Gem Medallion to aid him on his quest."
"A few Goblins rushed Gabriel, unaware of his quest."
Speed strategy (full power): on the left path, there's some climbing which you
can speed up using double jump. But going this way is not the optimal thing to
do in a speedrun anyway...
Other (full power): on the right path, there's a tree you can knock over. The
animation of knocking the tree over can be escaped using the Holy Cross
glitch... Actually, the tree doesn't even become knocked over this way, it just
starts shaking ominously! The invisible walls will not clear from the way, and
you need double jump to reach the grapple point and get across. The prompt of
the tree itself becomes unuseable afterwards.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid (at about 00:39)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YSIfxsWUY
"Goblins and Wolves wouldn't stop him, once he had mastered the art of Focus."
Sequence break (full power): skipping Goblin Gate fight
You can do the end of the level out of bounds, skipping the Goblin fight where
you have to blow up the gate. This is done by doing a high jump near the
grapple point at the window where you'd normally jump through. To get up to the
ledge via the grapple, you need to move Gabriel to just below the circular
window. From there make Gabriel push away from the wall and instantly press
jump and lean controller diaginally up/right. Then a minor high jump will get
you up to a ledge on the top of the building. Jump down (while staying out-of-
bounds) and walk along some narrrow collision to the right of the battle arena.
When you reach a statue at the far end, do a sprint/double jump across a gap to
end up at the final area. Luckily, even tho you are out-of-bounds the game lets
Gabriel walk inbounds just enough to jump up to the area where the final
grapple is. Activate the grapple to end up at the final trigger.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHmqaDmI1s
Sequence break: jump up to the tree
At the very end of the level, you need to jump inside a large tree trunk. You
normally need to take a small detour around and grapple to it, but you can also
slowly but steadily jump your way up using the angled surface to the side of
the tree. Yes, this is a speed strategy that works even on New Game. Of course,
jumping up to the trunk becomes trivial with full power.
Video demonstration:
1, logitechSDAZ's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tKUIyW4MU
2-2: Underground Caves
"There was the strong possibility of getting lost inside these treacherous
caves or much worse..."
Wasted potential (full power): you can jump over the wall in the very first
room, but unfortunately you can't walk on top of the ceiling of the tunnel
leading out of there. Or most other ceiling per se. If you could, you could
skip the Spider fight and maybe other stuff too. Maybe in a TAS, since there
seem to be some very small collision patches around that you could use to
navigate... but probably not in normal running.
Wasted potential: the trigger that starts the Spider fight is massive, and even
attempting to go by the roof will activate it. Collision and other issues make
it very unlikely that you could go around it like this.
Speed strategy (full power): you can skip the small bit of climbing before
Spider fight with double jump. Well... you can skip most small climbing bits
with double jump all around the level.
"Spiders were not the only inhabitants of the caves: Goblins and Lycanthropes
roamed its tunnels, too."
Speed strategy: if you have Holy Cross, you can use it to break out of the key
collecting animations, saving little time each time.
Sequence break (full power): skipping getting the keys
First get to the overlook where you can see the door where to insert the two
keys. Then you need to do a high jump to hit a small piece of collision up on
the wall. Satvara's positioning makes it pretty easy: do a normal double jump
in front of the small breakable urn. At the top, do Landslide Punch once, and
follow it up with two repeats of Air Direct Attack and Holy Water. Remember to
aim towards somewhat right. You should land on the small collision... and from
there, Sprint Jump to get past the door.
An alternate way of getting to behind the door, is to do a Shoulder Charge long
jump from on top of the - above mentioned - first collision. Do the long jump
deep towards the final tunnel's direction, while leaning your controller
slightly left. Then use your second jump to end up standing on out-of-bounds
collision directly right of the tunnel, from there you can hit the trigger that
brings you in-bounds.
Behind the door, the difficult part begins. The camera might not follow you
behind the key door and the ceiling of the tunnel is slippery and hard to
cross. If you get near the trigger that activates the Spiked Chain-upgrade
cutscene, you teleport back inside the tunnel. A good thing for some, for this
ends the ordeal on the slippery roof, but for the fastest results, you're
supposed to use your jumping artistry to go all the way to the end of the
level, where you can activate the grapple point from outside bounds and thus
reach the exit.
This trick as a whole was again brought to you by satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid (v2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3onUN4HLAM4
Other: you can Holy Cross break out of the key inserting animation. It's not
very meaningful, Gabriel just stands still while the key is inserted.
"Gandolfi's artifacts were well hidden and could be found only by the bravest
warriors."
2-3: Labyrinth Entrance
"Another obstacle stood in his way: a large reinforced door! Gabriel would have
to use the strength of his enemies to tear it down."
Sequence break (full power): while the walls are very high at the start of the
level, where the game expects you to ride a Warthog and burst open a gate, it's
barely possible to leave the area using some invisible floor around the place.
First, do a high jump on top of the roots to the left of the gate itself. From
there, go a little right, jumping on top of the higher root part roughly in
front of the gate. From there, do a lax double jump towards the foreground and
right - done correctly, Gabriel will grab onto an invisible ledge and pull
himself up to some invisible floor. From there, a decently high jump to the
right will get you over the walls of this room and out of bounds. From there,
you can get to end level early... (more about this below)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=229
Sequence break (full power): Once you've mounted your warthog and smashed
through the door, turn right and while keeping the hog as close to the wall as
possible, line up Gabriel approximately where the dead Brotherhood fellow is.
Kill your mount and start spamming (quick) roll towards a rock that is next to
the dead body. If done correctly, Gabriel will breach the wall and you can then
skip to the end of the level (as described just below)...
Video demonstration:
1, findle's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chiWM9bw1Es&t=2m43s
Speed strategy (full power): you can skip small climbing bits through the level
using double jump.
"The Waterfalls of Agharta hid a magnificent labyrinth of ruins perfect for a
deadly ambush."
Sequence break: skipping later half of the level
You can high jump out of bounds after having grappled up the gate, right before
the balancing beam section. Usually you can't do much out of bounds, but this
level is an exception because you can jump back up from there! Try to find a
sort of hovering circle with waterfalls all around it through the nothingness,
that's the end level, and go around to the side of it where you don't activate
the battle trigger when trying to high jump up. Then, do an annoyingly precise
high jump up to the platform's edge. Then, there's still one more invisible
wall to get over (pretty high by the looks of it) before you're finally clear.
You can use Guillotine ascension to help overcome the last wall, and after
getting past that, the level is practically over. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6o6KsDIAw
Other (full power): there's an alternative way to go out of bounds here at the
balancing beam section. Face the camera in front of the first beam, then do a
double jump that does a wide arc to the left, aiming towards the platform you
end up at after the climbing section. If you're precise enough, you avoid death
collision and fall to the edge of the platform, still in OOB, without having
used any Holy Water. Too bad the camera is worse doing it this way than if you
used a high jump to go OoB.
"Some Lycanthropes tried to stop Gabriel from using the door mechanism."
Speed strategy: you can actually avoid fighting the Lycanthropes at the gate by
using Divine Shield. This strategy takes a little bit of luck since the Shield
has time to wear off before you've rotated the entire wheel. This strategy IS
possible without the Shield too, but good luck trying to manipulate it to
happen!
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbDNIxMJNLo
"The City of Agharta lies beyond, yet a fight to the death also beckons."
Battle exploit: fight the last fight from safety
Basically, right as you step inside the battle arena where the crank is, an
invisible wall forms behind you. If you're quick, you can jump back after
stepping in to get behind the invisible wall after it forms. You can easily win
this fight from there.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSN7oghnBqQ
Speed strategy (full power): you can mostly skip the last fight by again using
Divine Shield for the crank turning. You should thin out the Goblin numbers
before attempting this, I think.
2-4: Waterfalls of Agharta
"Gabriel had to find a way back to the upper levels of the city, but enemies
approached from all sides."
Sequence break (full power): skip first Spider fight and more
Before entering the first Spider fight arena, stop. You have to high jump over
the invisible wall to the back and right. Use the nearby statue for some extra
height by Stomping on it and making another two jumps. Aim even more to the
right to hit the correct spot and then finish the high jump with Landslide
Punch. You end up on top of a thin stretch of slippery collision, and your next
goal is to land back on ground level still outside bounds. Slide to the far
right of the collision, then as you start falling down, make a jump back
towards the platform you started from. There's not much floor for you to stand
on there, so be careful.
Anyway, from here you have to double backwards jump towards a - yet unseen -
corridor (in the background). Aim somewhat towards the corridor's beginning to
reduce the length of the jump. And... now you will start hating this skip,
because if you fail this jump after aiming enough to the right, the game will
respawn you back to the fight arena and start the Spider fight, ruining all
your progress.
The corridor you've just reached is actually one of the corridors that is
located to the right of the health fountain (the fountain that's located just
after the Troll fight, later on in the level). Now you have to double jump on
top of the corridor and hit a patch of normal collision at a certain part of
the left side of the ceiling to do more jumps again. Since Gabriel is now on
top of one of the two corridors that are located beyond the Troll fight (and
which are not too far away from each other, and located nearly parallel to each
other), it's just a matter of doing a double backwards jump towards the left of
screen towards that other corridor (aim your jump just left of a waterwall, and
try to land directly on some thin tree roots you see hanging in mid air that
are located to the left of the waterfall). Note that there is a waterfall in
your way (between the parallel corridors), but the double backwards jump you
just did should get you more-or-less on top of collision that surrounds the
waterfall (it's large & clearly visible). From there you can walk on the
collision surrounding the waterfall, so double jump towards the exit of the
second coriddor, and hit a loading trigger there while out-of-bounds. Then
restart to bring Gabriel back in-bounds again, but he'll now be located on the
other side of the final corridor. (c: satvara)
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DpKi__QzPk
"A giant Spider, attracted by the scent of human flesh, attacked Gabriel on the
platform."
Speed strategy (full power): some climbing can be skipped using double jump.
Speed strategy (new game): Troll battle skip + statue skip
You can skip the section where you pull down the statue, as well as the
following Trolls battle. This is done by doing stomp - at a certain time - into
death collision located next to the first waterfall you come across. Stomping
into this pit can let Gabriel bypass the death collision unscathed, he falls
down to an area that is actually located after the Trolls battle (near where
there is a dead hidden Brotherhood Knight).
A good method to find the correct moment to stomp through this death collision,
is by rolling against the ledge and then press jump instantly followed stomp.
(c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi_Xj5mu1Sc
Speed strategy (full power): you can use Divine Shield to not have to bother
with the enemies while pulling down the statue.
"A new ambush, and yet fortune shone when uncalled for. The Cave Troll could
prove useful."
Sequence break: skipping the fight against Trolls
Using Assisted Long Jump, you can reach the other side of the chasm where
you're supposed to go quite loftily even without full power. Basically, jump
into the chasm just as an enemy takes a swipe at you near where you're supposed
to go, slightly to the right of the breakable rock for example. Eventually the
enemy's strike is glitched, and jumping at that moment will give Gabriel a
great momentum boost that throws him to the other side when he is hit.
Another tactic that requires full powers is also possible. You can do a
Shoulder Charge long jump to reach the other side extremely quickly.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid of first method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_byZXKgM13A
2, findlestick's vid of second method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR3nShqwAGA
"Another pack of Lycanthropes ambushed Gabriel when he reached the other side
of the tunnel."
Sequence break (full power): mid-level skip
If you fight the Spider fight and platform onward for a decent length, you find
a rappel point. Latch onto it, and jump off it, making a high jump to the left.
Get over the invisible wall, so that you fall on the corridor there but out of
bounds. From there do a long jump towards the back to reach further on in the
level. This skips at least two fights and some navigation. (c: satvara)
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_qK9QgUXs
Skip (full power): later on in the level there is a large chasm with a rappel
point in the distance while some lycanthropes are harassing Gabriel. You can do
a small high jump towards the invisible wall to the back and latch onto the
distant rappel point from here. Saves some time running around the cliff. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, see the vid above
Sequence break (full power): second Spider fight skip
Do a sprint long jump towards the fighting arena. Before landing on ground,
start gaining more height by lobbing Holy Water and doing other high jump
antics. With enough height, you'll land on the invisible wall in front of the
bridge that is supposed to collapse when the Spider steps on it. From there
continue jumping onwards, and you'll get past this section without having to
fight at all. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DpKi__QzPk
"With the bridge destroyed, Gabriel would have to find another way to cross the
gap."
"Gandolfi's Combat Cross was proving valuable in the battle to defeat the enemy
hordes."
Fight skip (full power): you can escape the Lycanthrope battle after acquiring
Shadow Magic using a high jump despite the inactive grapple points. Get on top
of the statue head and do a high jump that finishes up with your second jump.
You should be able to grap the ledges up there, and the grapple point far above
is at least active, allowing you to escape.
2-5: Agharta
"The watchful ruins of Agharta lay before Gabriel as he travelled across its
desolate streets."
Sequence break (full power): skipping entire level
Since the level exit is so nearby, why not? Approach the so-called unclimbable
wall that's right where you start the level at. Find a sort of corner in the
wall against which to do a high jump. It's another of those kinds of high jumps
that end with Holy Water lugging so that you end on top of the thin invisible
wall and can propel yourself on top of the circular platform of the tower. From
there, approach the level exit. Jump around a small invisible wall to grab the
grapple point where you descend at the end of the level. A quick way of getting
through the invisible collision, is to enter the statue that's located on the
right of screen, then jump up through its head, then jump left of screen. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t7ha4KV2vA
"Gabriel fought for his very survival, as the packs of Lycanthropes swarmed to
take his life."
"Wargs don't like to be ridden, and would eat anyone audacious enough to try
such a thing. For the rider, it's kill or be killed."
Speed strategy (full power): you don't need a Warg to jump over the chasms,
just a double jump will do.
"Small Trolls made the city their home, seeking the protection of their bigger,
stronger cousings."
"Once he got the beast under control, Gabriel could use the mighty strength of
the Troll as his own."
Sequence break (full power): instead of mounting a troll to bash down the gate,
you can jump over it using a Wings high jump.
2-6: Dark Dungeon
"Gabriel followed the mysterious girl further into the depths of the City."
Speed strategy (full power): speed strats for the climb at the beginning
At the very start of the level, you can reach the second rappel point early
using a double jump. So kick off the wall, then do one jump towards foreground,
then a fairly quick double jump to the left. Be ready to use the rappel point
while flying past it. This skips the wall climb leading to the rappel point,
saving maybe total of 10 seconds. You can also use your double jump during the
wall climb to save less time but potentially make the jump easier.
From the second rappel point, instead of jumping forward, do a double jump that
leans heavily to the right. Now, there is a lot of death collision in the way,
but with precise Stomp or Landslide Punch you can break through it and land to
the corridor leading deeper into the dungeon. One spot where it is easiest to
break through seems to be at the corner of the "archway", so try to get
slightly in it with a curved backwards jump and do a single Stomp to land on
some ground and from there fall safely all the way down.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRzneWAKa-s#t=1060
1, satvara's original vid, using a slightly slower tactic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3nbI14s_6k
Collision flaw (full power): you can get out of bounds during the last part of
the beginning rappel. After reaching the point where you can drop down and
continue the level, don't do that. Instead proceed towards the bonus area.
There's a rappel that goes past some waterfalls leading to another rappel
point. From this rappel point, drop down for about a second and make a double
jump towards the walls. Gabriel should end up outside bounds, where there's a
little bit of floor you can run on. The camera is awful, and it's questionable
if you can do anything useful with this. (c: DragoonSorceress)
Video demonstration:
1, DragonSorceress' vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icP6JJKkhmM
"Only some fires illuminated the deepest levels of the city dungeons."
"A handful of Gremlins attacked Gabriel with flaming rocks."
Sequence break (full power): two keys skip
At the part where you must extend a bridge with two keys, there's an invisible
wall in between the two statues preventing progress. You can jump over the wall
with Wings high jump and land on invisible floor. You can visit the 2nd key
area early this way if you like, but it is more efficient to not land down at
all, and instead do a Sprint double jump from on top of the invisible wall to
get over another invisible wall that's right ahead. After that you've
effectively skipped getting both keys.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid (skip v2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYBLcP-0UBE
2, satvara's vid (skip v1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFRzpMMhtFI
Sequence break (full power): skip the other key
A smaller version of this skip is to jump over the first invisible wall of the
bridge, then go to the area where you'd have to tear down a gate. Using a
backwards high jump lets you go over the gate without fighting a Spider.
Picking up the key, retrying from last checkpoint and returning the way you
came lets you open the remaining bridge using only one key total. (c:
Turbodog702)
2-7: Sanctuary Entrance
"Gabriel explored the ruins of Agharta, looking for power crystal nodes."
Sequence break (full power): skipping getting the crystal
You can do a massive high jump over the gate here, allowing you to progress
without having a full crystal. Although, in a full power speedrun it's arguable
if it's not faster to just open the gate normally.
Then, the second gate can be high jumped over as well, skipping the puzzle
inside the temple. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyeP-zS4P0
"The city streets were littered with the corpses of fallen Brotherhood
warriors."
Speed strategy: you can do an "air grab" high jump during the Crystal piece
fetch quest as a shortcut to reach a rappel point quicker. §
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=200
"Once the Dark Crystal was complete, Gabriel had to hurry towards the entrance,
where Claudia awaited."
"A Cave Troll guarded one of the Dark Crystal nodes."
"Another closed door blocked them from progressing towards the chamber of the
Titans."
2-8: Sanctuary of Titans
"The massive Stone Idol Titan stood menacingly before Gabriel."
Speed strat: you can break a Dark Crystal to heavily damage the Stone Idol
Titan. It seems to reduce hit points in all of the Titan's runes to minimum, so
that only one hit will destroy them after that.
Wasted potential: it seems that the cutscene of the stone hitting the Titan
can't be glitched with Dark Crystal.
"Gabriel hung precariously from the surface of the stone Titan."
2-9: The Black Knight
"Claiming vengeance for Claudia, his protégéé, the Black Knight Golem
ferociously attacked Gabriel."
3-1: The Three Towers
"With the Dark Gauntlet on his hand, Gabriel headed towards the Lycanthrope
fortress."
Collision flaw (full power): there's an invisible ledge on top of the door you
have to break open. It's a bit glitchy and can launch Gabriel away from it
rarely. You can also climb on top of the door using the ledge, ending up in
between invisible walls and stuck eternally.
Speed strat: you can cancel the cutscene that occurs after having punched the
statue to the doors by fondling your Dark Crystal at a right time. This way you
get to move sooner than otherwise.
"A few Lycanthropes would provide Gabriel with the necessary Shadow Magic."
Out of bounds (full power): after getting outside of the building, there's a
small chasm you have to cross. Jump towards foreground and activate double jump
quite late, and Gabriel will miss death collision and fly to the unknown
landscapes of Out of Bounds. Unfortunately it may be that this level has its
OoB floor too low for you to jump back out from there again.
Speed strategy (full power): at the same chasm there's an invisible wall in the
way, preventing you from progressing before getting the statue next to the
chasm. But you can do a Sprint/high jump from under the invisible wall and help
yourself to the other side some seconds quicker.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbtOSbhzkI
"Gabriel had to find a way to cross the broken bridge."
Other (full power): the cutscene that starts after you've climbed up the
cliffside can be glitched. Do a double jump before climbing up - this way you
hit the cutscene's trigger and start it but fall to your death. The rest of the
scene has a glitched camera angle... nothing too special.
"A large group of Lycanthropes ambushed Gabriel, but got more than they
bargained for."
Sequence break (full power): skipping a Lycanthrope fight
After having climbed up a ridge and seen a cutscene where a close-up of the
temple face is shown, some foes attack Gabriel. You can do a high jump over the
gate in front of you to just skip all of it. (c: satvara)
An older method involved going out of bounds with a Sprint jump to the left
after having climbed up and getting back in bounds later. It's slower and more
complicated doing it like this, so the first method is recommended. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of v2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtzHvfgNK7I
2, satvara's vid of v1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmokXHf7VqQ
"The ruins of the Three Towers stood ominously before the Brotherhood hero."
Sequence break (full power): when you reach the yard with the turnable crank,
you can do a small high jump from the stairs to the left to grab the ledges on
the wall and climb inside the ruin. This skips another fight. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPWNIsFVAc
Other: it seems that one of the rappel points can potentially glitch up so that
you die if you climb up it. Reason or frequency of the glitch unknown.
Video demonstration:
1, SebastianGauge's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE_qwFnUd24
3-2: The Dark Lord of the Lycans
"A beam of magical light revealed the power of the Dark Lord of the
Lycanthropes."
"The full moon shone above the two fighters while they exchanged fiery blows."
Sequence break: skip boss fight
That's right, Gabriel can spare the life of this Lord of Shadow. All you have
to do is start the fight with him, then high jump over the invisible wall in
front of the exit corridor and jump there. Even with the combat camera, landing
the jumps shouldn't be too hard to do. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBgB2gut8Q
"The Dark Lord changed into a monstrous werewolf and resumed combat."
"The Dark Lord sent his vital energy to the stone monoliths surrounding the
platform."
"Gabriel explored his new movement abilities, obtained with the Cyclone Boots."
4-1: Mountain Fortress
"The walls of the mountain fortress rose up on the horizon, waiting for the
courageous hero."
Speed strategy: you can skip some climbing by doing a high jump over the
invisible wall in your way. You land on the ceiling, which as usual is slippery
stuff instead of normal floor, but it's possible to make your way past it
regardless by sliding on top. At the end you fall down back in bounds and can
continue on like normal. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE
"Two packs of Small Trolls were no match for Gabriel's skills."
Sequence break (full power): skipping later half of the level
Using this skip, you skip all the way from before the Ogre to the end of the
level. At the stairs just before you reach a doorway which has its door smashed
up, do a double jump slightly left and towards the screen, thus going over an
invisible wall. See that broken section of a column's base sticking up out of
the ground at the left bottom of the stairs? Get on it and do a large backwards
double jump far left of screen to end up near a visible out-of-bounds ledge. If
you don't get killed by the death collision below you, high jump up to that
ledge. Once you are up there, walk along the left edge of that platform towards
the grapple area, and do a double jump to end up directly behind the platform
that the grapple normally takes you to. The camera angle with then change
showing you a ledge, then double jump up directly behind it to end up on an
invisible floor. Start running in a North Westerly direction until the camera
changes, at which point you'll notice that Gabriel is underneath the area where
the final door of the level is. All you need to do now is double jump up to an
invisible floor on the left of screen, and from there do a high jump up to the
actual level that you'll see on your right. Make an out-of-bounds route to the
final door and hit the final trigger that is located next to it. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HCxZg8kbdQ
"An enormous monster appeared on the other side of the wall, roaring
ferociously."
Other: in the Ogre chase scene, all drops are instantly fatal instead of just
damaging. Maybe so that respawning next to the pit wouldn't mess up the scene's
internal timing.
"The Ogre smashed his fist along the outer walls of the fortress, trying to
catch Gabriel."
"The Ogre smashed and smashed in an attempt to crush the annoying human that
kept bothering him."
Sequence break (new game): skip the Ogre fight
You can launch Gabriel extremely high into the sky, and end up directly at the
next Troll fight. A reliable method of doing this is by waiting until the Ogre
does a single handed pound. You need to quickly jump on his hand followed by
doing a Rising Strike against the Ogre, and immediately do a - nearly - fully
charged Landslide Punch (nearly fully charged is the key to get the timing
correct, otherwise you may not get launched).
If done correctly, Gabriel will get launched to the top of the map. As Gabriel
rises, aim him in an Easterly direction for 5 seconds, at which point you
should start doing guillotine attacks. The reason is because if you simply let
Gabriel fall, most times the game won’t have time to load the map, and you’ll
just fall out-of-bounds forever. Guillotine lets you descend at a rate that
will give the game time to load the map around you. (c: findlestick)
It is also possible to get launched much higher than described above, by a
slightly different method (but more difficult). Firstly you need to do the set-
up as mentioned above, but instead of doing a Landslide Punch after Rising
Strike. Start doing consecutive Avalanche Punches, but with a Holy Cross air
attack in between. If done correctly Gabriel will start to chaotically move up,
down and around the Ogre. Keep doing the attacks I mentioned until you see
Gabriel rise extremely high (but hasn’t launched). Now, at some point - which I
haven’t yet figured out - doing a Landslide Punch will start a launch from a
much higher point than the previous method. Still needs more testing to see if
more can be skipped with this glitch.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid of Ogre skip and getting an Early Brotherhood box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmTTDqSTrZ4
Other: early Brotherhood Box (Fairies)
By using the over-mentioned launch glitch at the Ogre, you can get launched
behind the gate that contains a Brotherhood box. Once you are launched, aim
Gabriel in a South-Easterly direction for 7 seconds, then do Guillotine attacks
to give the game time to load the map around you. If done correctly, you’ll end
up behind the gate next to the Brotherhood box. Open the box and then restart
to end up outside of the gated area, with a handful of extra Fairies. (c:
findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, see findlesticks vid above
Sequence break (full power): skip the Ogre fight
A traditionalist way to skip the Ogre fight: just high jump past the invisible
wall blocking the exit. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE
"Large and Small Trolls descended from the fortress walls to attack the
Brotherhood warrior."
Sequence break (full power): Troll fight and Chupacabra skip
At the rappel point that takes you to the final stretch of the level, after </pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
flying over the wall quickly start a decent-sized high jump to your right. You
probably need to use at least two Holy Waters and other tricks to do it.
Afterwards you fall down out of bounds, beneath the level, but fortunately the
floor there is not too low and you can take this opportunity to navigate your
way past all the obstacles and get to the end of the level in record time. Note
that it's possible to use some invisible floor to the left close to the very
end of the level to get a higher jump when you need to get back on ground
level. (c: satvara)
It's possible to return to ground level earlier too, but it's cumbersome to get
to the exit gate out of bounds this way. This method of doing things is now
obsolete.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hqLq-xWeFw
2, satvara's vid of old Chupacabra skip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKNPv7D0dE
"Gabriel searched for the elusive Chupacabras around the ruins, trying to
recover his stolen Relics."
"Once he had his Relics back, Gabriel headed towards the tall tower that
crowned the mountain fortress."
4-2: The Crow Witch
"Unexpectedly, a fire was burning in the lowest floor of the tower."
"Gabriel shivered as he left the relative warmth of the tower's interior."
"Wrapped in ragged pieces of cloth, the phantasmagoric Swordmasters attacked
Gabriel."
Sequence break: skip Swordmaster fights
After entering the second floor, just head to the right and do a small high
jump over the closed gate. This skips the first fight. Then, after entering
third floor, head to the back wall of the room and do a high jump against it.
Gain height until you see the rappel point prompt appear, then grab it. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1F5Pc3trlw
Other: Swordmaster cutscene glitch
Skip the first Swordmaster fight and go up the stairs to the rappel point. Now
do an Landslide Punch towards the left to hit death collision at the same time
you activate the Swordmaster fight. This makes the cutscene slow down to an
absolute crawl, and as a bonus you get to keep the death-o-vision flickering
effect on for the rest of the level! (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZv52gMnneI
Other: opening a Brotherhood Ark early
You can reach the Holy Water upgrade here much earlier than you should. Go to
the Ark, then do a Shoulder Charge jump towards it and continue to a Gauntlet
high jump. This should be enough to reach the Ark and open it. However, Gabriel
doesn't benefit from a Holy Water upgrade this early - he doesn't learn the
skill to toss Holy Water until Chapter 5 anyway. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=330
"The Crow Witch and her sons fought Gabriel on top of the fortress tower."
5-1: Veros Woods
"An inch of snow covered the withered trees of Veros Woods."
"Tribes of mountain Goblins inhabited these lands, attacking travellers and
adventurers."
Trigger skip: you can Shoulder Charge right through the trigger that spawns the
first Goblins in the level.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=211
Wasted potential: it seems to be extremely difficult, if not impossible to skip
the Chupacabra with our current trick knowledge. You can get past the first
trigger wall with some hardships by doing some precise high jumping, but before
long the Chupacabra scene activates anyway... are there two huge trigger walls
in the area?
Going around the entire area in Out of Bounds also doesn't seem like an option
because the floor there is very unstable. Hmm, what to do...
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7_6b6KgFbo
"Gabriel could hear the irritating voice of the Chupacabras, teasing him."
"Having lost the magic Relics, Gabriel had to fight the Goblins using only his
skills."
Sequence break: you can use cheats after Chupacabra has taken away your powers
to give the powers back to you. A pretty lame way to go about it, but perhaps
good for casual playing if you just can't be bothered with the Chupacabra...
Sequence break: if you dismount the Warthog in front of where the Chupacabra is
hiding, Gabriel momentarily ends up standing on air. At that moment you can
jump directly to the final climbing section that leads to the Chupacabra. You
can also get to that ledge by jumping on a triangular wooden structure located
at the same area, and then jumping to the final ledge.
5-2: Wygol Village
"As he walked through the empty streets of Wygol Village, Gabriel could feel
the fear that gripped the townsfolk."
Sequence break (full power and new game): skipping everything
This entire level can be skipped by high jumping over any wall (ideally to the
right or back), and then running diagonally to the bottom right corner of the
screen. It turns out that the final area of the level is located in that
direction, and all it takes is doing a sprint/double jump to hit the end-level
trigger. The location is tricky to hit thanks to bad camera angles, but a good
rule of thumb is to jump when you see about 3 or 4 trees to your right and just
when a statue is about to appear on-screen to your upper-left of screen. (c:
satvara)
This massive skip can also be done during New Game. Firstly, walk slightly past
the small archway in front of you and do a High Jump to the left or right wall.
It only has to be a very minor High Jump, since the walls just beyond the
archway are extremely low. This may even be faster during a full power speedrun
too. The final end level trigger can also be activated, by doing a similarly
small High Jump.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jbYrM1fhIc
Wasted potential: the Ark of Brotherhood could be reached with a high jump, if
it weren't for an invisible wall also blocking your path. The wall only goes
away after you get Wings.
"The foul stench of corrupted flesh permeated the graveyard."
"Gabriel and Zobek stood shoulder to shoulder, fighting the ghouls invading the
graveyard."
Sequence break (full power): skip rest of the level
Two a bit outdated skips since we now can skip the entire Wygol Village. After
reaching the graveyard, do a high jump on top of the exit gate, and from there
jump out of bounds to your left. Run a little way under the mausoleum and do a
double jump towards the exit... finishing the level. (c: satvara)
Older method involves just jumping over the gate, but finishing the rest of the
level normally.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLpE_41_a2g
2, satvara's vid of older method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO7eTQ8Cwzw
Other: you can cause a slight glitchy effect with the tombstone prompts at the
graveyard using Holy Cross. Gabriel looks like he is completely disinterested
in them and doesn't have his Cross-Chain whipped around them until the actual
QTE starts.
"The small mausoleum housed another of the powerful Brotherhood relics designed
by Gandolfi."
5-3: Abbey Catacombs
"Gabriel and Zobek travelled through the tunnels that connected Wygol Village
with its abbey."
"The two Brotherhood comrades fought together against the incoming horde of
Vampires."
"The traps set up by the abbot made the acquisition of the two keys more
difficult."
Sequence break (full power): skip everything
At the start of the level you're pitted against Vampires. Instead of fighting
them, jump on top of the closed gate. Don't jump from too close because the
archway will block you. From on top of the gate, do a backwards double jump to
the left and back. You'll hit the side of a corridor from much later in the
level, except you're out of bounds (and everything might be invisible for a
moment). From there just go towards the back, then around the corner, jump
forward and you'll hit the level exit. (c: satvara)
An old variation just jumps over the exit gates to get to the puzzle area
sooner.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5EmRG_Jso
2, satvara's vid of old variation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e50-ooxhxnc
Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross breakout of the key picking up animations,
saving negligible time at best.
"Inside the inner cloister, another obstacle held the pair of Brotherhood
warriors back for a while."
Sequence break (full power): puzzle skip
After reaching the puzzle courtyard, simply high jump on top of the south wall,
and from there you can double jump and hit the level exit without solving the
puzzle. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nYX-bTXNuU
5-4: Abbey Library
"Gabriel and Zobek entered the library, following the trail of the abbot."
"Gabriel had to deal with the animated Armor while Zobek searched for an exit."
Sequence break: fight and 1st (and even 2nd) puzzle room skip
Before entering the room where a fight against an Animated Armor begins, high
jump over the back wall. While out-of-bounds, you can either get directly
inside the room that contains the 1st light puzzle, by jumping left & forwards
towards some visible graphics. Or you can walk left along the checkered wall to
get near the stairs past the exit door. Do a Shoulder Charge/long jump (into an
air-launch/high jump) to get to the top of the stairs that are located past the
exit door of the 1st light puzzle. Touch a loading trigger behind the exit door
which will load the area with the second puzzle, allowing you to proceed
normally.
(c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findle's vid (skipping the 1st light puzzle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJg4KNvESok
2, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QecuSKlTJU
Other: you can use a Dark Crystal before the cutscene that activates after the
Animated Armor fight. This doesn't cause any notable effects, just makes
Gabriel freeze at the end of it.
"Alone, Gabriel explored the library's upper floor, looking for a solution to
the puzzle."
Other: you can go out of bounds mid-way of the puzzle by utilizing Ultimate
Shadow at the trigger which switches areas.
Sequence break: skip rest of the level
An alternative way to skip things in this level. After getting into the second
puzzle room, do a high jump on top of the invisible wall that's in the corner
to the left of the room's exit door. From there, you could probably navigate
into the corridor behind the door, backtracking to touch the loading trigger
and continue from there... or you can take the jump a little further still.
From on top of the first wall, you can high jump on top of another invisible
wall in front of the exit door. Getting on top is just a matter of pure
positioning and practice. End the jump with a Holy Water throw to land easier.
From there, a backwards double jump or Shoulder Charge jump slightly to the
left gets you outside the exit corridor out of bounds. From there, jump over
yet another wall (at least this is a pretty small wall), and the level is
finished. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94fqfJHziQM
Sequence break: skip third puzzle
Another alternative to skipping things. When you enter the third puzzle room
area, get around the corner of the stairs and onto the higher main corridor.
Then do a high jump towards the screen, and once you get over the wall, you
should be where the exit to the level is. Try walking around if you don't hit
it instantly. (c: satvara)
Note that the camera for doing this trick will be different from the example
below if you do it as your first thing after entering the third puzzle room.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K93RhrUMojI
5-5: Abbey Tower
"The last rays of sunlight illuminated the snow covered grounds of the Abbey
tower."
Speed strategy: you can skip the cutscene at the end of the short tunnel by
doing a Shoulder Charge through it. Though it probably takes just as long to
skip the cutscene via the menu.
Collision flaw: at the ground level, go as far back in the level as you can.
Jumping against the back corner right where the trench goes by, there's some
strange collision there that can make Gabriel fall endlessly or slightly get
stuck.
"Gabriel struggled against the continuous attacks of Ghouls and Gremlins."
Wasted potential: the bridge lowering prompt apparently won't become glitched
with Holy Cross.
"As he crossed the ruined bridge, more Gremlins flew towards Gabriel, throwing
fireballs at him."
Sequence break: in the inner yard, you'd normally have to open up a gate to
reach a staircase that leads you to a slightly higher level. You can use
Gauntlet high jump to get to that higher level early. However, you may need
some luck to get through the climbing bit with the Gremlins still around.
"Gabriel scaled the Abbey tower, avoiding the attacks of the vexing Gremlins."
Speed strat (full power): speeding up climbing
A fancy strategy that saves some seconds over normal completion: start doing a
high jump from a normal jump - delay its start a little so that you can hit the
trigger that changes the camera, otherwise you won't see where you're going.
Gain a little bit of height, then use your second jump to end up on some
collision on top of the brick wall to your right. This patch of collision can
be a bit hard to hit. Then, do a double jump to go standing on the ledges at
the right end of the wall, and from there jump around the corner. Start
climbing normally to use the rappel point and continue from there on normally.
(c: AKheon)
A less fancy but more practical approach could be to just make a double jump
around the corner to grab the leftmost ledges of the right wall early. This way
you skip some seconds of climbing without wasting any resources.
Sadly the rappel points can't be latched onto so easily from a high jump,
otherwise you could've maybe saved more time.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid of the fancy strategy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExrOQgykjvE
Other: at the very end of the climbing, when you have to kick the window in,
you can start the motion but then jump to a completely different direction
instead. The cutscene kicks in regardless. Just looks funny.
5-6: Brauner
"A Vampire raiding party was already attacking the small village of Wygol when
Gabriel reached it."
"The horrific leader of the Vampire group, Brauner, attacked Gabriel, wielding
a cruel, double-edged sword."
Wasted potential: you can barely use a Dark Crystal before the cutscene where
Brauner appears. However, it doesn't appear to do much else than freeze Gabriel
in one spot afterwards.
5-7: Castle Sewers
"A thankful villager led Gabriel to the secret entrance of the sewage system
beneath the Vampire Castle."
"Gabriel didn't have to enter the muddy waters of the sewers to know that they
were infested with Naiads."
Speed strategy: the switches here can be pulled quicker by using Holy Cross to
break out of the switch animations. It is done simply by having Holy Cross
active and shooting light when you examine the switches.
Speed strategy (full power): you can double jump around the gushing pipes,
skipping pulling the switches.
Sequence break (full power): skip rest of the level
You can high jump on top of the invisible wall at the back of the skeleton
fight room, and from there double jump over the slippery collision of the exit
corridor. Moving slowly forward, you eventually hit the level finish trigger.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nx-qAuvuQA
"The bleached bones of the Skeleton Warriors rose up to attack Gabriel."
"The trap laid out inside the narrow passage had caught many adventurers in the
past."
6-1: Castle Courtyard
"The stones of the Vampire Castle were partially concealed by a soft mantle of
snow."
Speed strat (full power): at the climbing section in the start, you can drop
off the ledge and use your double jump to reach a slightly later rappel point
on the wall, saving a little climbing time.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of this and many later tricks too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmFs3rVfS8A
Speed strat (full power): at the climbing section above ground, you can use
double jump to skip a little of climbing. However, if you do this, you can't do
the following skip here.
Sequence break (full power): at the climbing section, after having jumped over
the chasm to get to the other side of the fence, drop down from the climbing
wall and use double jump to jump over the wall you were climbing, then steer to
the right. You'll fall down into the Sewers without too much effort. (c:
satvara)
A faster way to skip the battle can be done by simply jumping onto the statue
near the fence closest to the arena. And then double jumping inside of the
large brick structure you normally ledge-climb across, located to the left.
There’s some floor you can stand on out-of-bounds close to the wall, from which
you can double jump directly down to the area under the battle arena, and end
up at the upper area of the Ice Pit battle, thus skipping it too.
Once you reach the top of the square hole in the ground, do a Backwards High
Jump in a Northeasterly direction. This will send you flying over a wall and
you can skip directly to the final crank used to open a gate. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findestick's vid of the faster version + shortcut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DQ3uK4cVOo
Video demonstration: version 1
1, see satvara's previous vid
Wasted potential: you can try to reach the Maze Gardens early, but it isn't
loaded at this point. Same goes for the Castle Hall.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=35
"When Gabriel tried to open the metal grille, two animated suits of armor
materialized before him."
"Inside the castle prison, Vampires kept caged creatures to feed off their
blood."
Sequence break (full power): retry from checkpoint where Gabriel falls into the
dungeon. While falling down, steer to the right and do a double jump to get to
the higher level instantly, skipping the skeletons + warg battle. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, see satvara's previous vid
"Vampires could only attack Gabriel inside the dungeons, with the sun still
burning over the world."
Speed strat: being quick and utilizing Fairies, you can open up the stake door
at the end of the level without having to bother with the enemies. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, see satvara's previous vid
6-2: Maze Gardens
"The presence of the Dark Lord had turned the once-verdant gardens of the
mountain castle into a mockery of life."
Sequence break (full power): you can get over the garden wall that would
require you to punch a climbing pillar closer with a moderately low jump. Just
a Wings double jump suffices, if you got Wings.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8xxI3HHZx0
"Gabriel used the tamed giant Spider to make his way through the garden maze."
"A mysterious puzzle inside the garden greenhouse hid the castle key."
"Once he had the key in his hands, Gabriel could head on towards the entrance
to the castle."
Sequence break (full power): you can avoid having to use the Spider to enter
the area that contains a puzzle. This is done by double jumping on top of the
winged-statue that is located to the right of the puzzle's entrance. Then do an
Upwards Guillotine launch to end up above the puzzle's entrance, and use a high
jump to end up on a decent sized ledge above it. From there, double jump
towards the puzzle and you'll end up right in front of it.
After you get the key, you have to restart so that the web at the exit gets
loaded, so that you can leave.
Video demonstration:
1, see the above vid
Wasted potential: using Ultimate Light to try to rapidly cross the spider web
doesn't seem to work at the puzzle's exit.
Wasted potential: you can try to go to the Castle Hall early from out of
bounds, but there isn't much loaded there at the moment. You'll find some
graphics and a trigger which turns the screen black. But other than that,
nothing...
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=91
6-3: Castle Hall
"The scared Vampires saw the rays of sunlight streaming through the open
windows."
"Warm shafts of sunlight entered the room through the ragged curtains of the
windows."
Sequence break: skip most of the level
You can get through this level without really killing any Vampires at all, or
even bothering with the puzzle. You can get past the first fight by using
Fairies and a touch of luck to open the stake door without enemies pestering
you. Finally, the big door that you need to solve the puzzle to open can just
be jumped over. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up8nbcFOhM4
Wasted potential: another attempted way to skip this area involved going out of
bounds at the start. You can jump on top of a knight statue to the right and
walk up the knight's spear to gain decent height. From there you can just
double jump past the walls. However, there isn't much collision to walk on
beyond the Castle Hall walls, making it difficult to proceed from here. (c:
findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=307
"Inside the small lateral room, a new puzzle of magic runes hid the secret to
open the last door."
Untested: there's an Ark of Brotherhood with a dagger upgrade in it, quite
high. Like with the other power-ups you're supposed to pick up only after
getting the Wings, it's likely that you could use a non-Wings jump to get to
the needed height but there's an invisible wall in the way.
"After the sunset, the Vampires were able to roam freely, searching their
adversary."
"The mysterious Vampire child challenged Gabriel to a strange game of 'chess'."
6-4: Refectory
"Inside the refectory, the foul stench of rotting meat assailed the nostrils of
our hero."
Sequence break: skip Evil Butcher
At the start of the level, having seen the scene with Ghouls, do a small high
jump to the left-back corner to get on top of the invisible wall there. From
there, double jump towards the screen and left to get to the corridor leading
to the exit while out of bounds. Sprint a little while along the corridor, then
double jump. You'll hit the cutscene which shows you the rune gate... and after
retrying, you're back in bounds and ready to roll. You can actually do this
high jump from any spot in the first corridor, but the invisible walls are at
their lowest next to the railing after having seen the Ghouls scene. (c:
satvara)
Yet another alternative way, potentially the fastest way, is doing a high jump
from the exit corridor itself. You see the crossed beams across the ceiling?
With precise positioning, you can land on them and use them to double jump
outside bounds, preferably to the left. This is because from there you can long
jump across to the final battle arena (the narrow hallway to the arena seems to
have no collision that you can walk on while out-of-bounds). Then make your way
behind the final door to trigger the end of level. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration
1, satvara's vid of the original way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUQ7_Wlals
2, findlestick's vid jumping from another spot (at around 1:19)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8&t=1m19s
3, sticklefind's vid (AKA findlestick) of the newest, potentially fastest way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdYuJF06ujk
Sequence break: skipping the meat puzzle
For just skipping this part and going to fight Evil Butcher early, do a high
jump to the right side of the balcony instead. After getting on top of the
invisible wall, jump past the right wall. From there you can activate the
rappel point and get thrown to the next part of the level a little earlier than
normal.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid (at around 0:43)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8
Wasted potential: you can Holy Cross break out of the bell ringing animation
and get in the vicinity of the opening latch and its rappel point even without
getting the meat, but activating the rappel point (or doing anything else) is
not possible during the part it's visible.
Other: Gabriel's meat weapon glitch
A humorous glitch in which Gabriel starts using a rotten slab of meat as a
weapon. It happens if you first skip Evil Butcher by doing one of the above
skips, then return to the main area and open the door to the 2nd part of the
level early. If you pick up the slab of meat and, instead of setting it to the
plate, walk with it to the 2nd part of the level, things glitch up and Gabriel
returns to his normal state while accidentally keeping the meat in his hands.
So now, when he attacks enemies, it looks like he does it with a piece of meat.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6xqFIdbJ8
"The Butcher, with a knife in one hand and a sword in the other, charged at
Gabriel."
Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross break out of the key picking up animation,
saving a little time... in theory.
"Gabriel picked up the key that the Butcher dropped, used it to open the door,
and left the dreadful kitchen."
"The exit to the balcony outside was guarded by a bunch of fearsome enemies."
Sequence break (full power): skip the end level fighting
At the area where the runes are, latch onto the rappel point to the right.
Climb to the highest point, climb around the corner, then use your double jump
to hit a small platform behind the large lamp. Use Guillotine to make the game
think Gabriel is momentarily on ground level again, and use Whirwind Flap to
launch yourself up and follow it up with high jump techniques to get over the
wall. Once beyond the wall, get behind the gate and double jump towards the
back to hit the level exit trigger.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUQ7_Wlals
7-1: Balcony
"As soon as he was outside, more Vampires rushed Gabriel."
"Gabriel used the few remaining wooden planks to move across the ruined roofs
of the castle."
Sequence break (full power): from the upper platform, you can sprint & double
jump over the balancing beams to quickly end up on the other side.
Collision flaw: you can go out of bounds at the balancing beam section by doing
a backwards double jump way beyond the beams. So far this OoB doesn't have an
use, though. (c: nia69870)
Video demonstration:
1, nia69870's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1kp_eg_U28
"Some ghostly swordmasters tried to stop Gabriel on the frozen balcony."
"It was getting colder outside; Gabriel would have to seek refuge soon."
Sequence break: skip rest of the level
At the locked gate, do a high jump from the left side of the fence. You should
drop down on some floor outside bounds. From there, jump forward to enter the
puzzle room but still out of bounds. The collision is pretty shoddy here, so
watch out. Also, landing on this floor you activate a new checkpoint that will
return you to inside the puzzle room - so if you fail now the game will return
you inside the puzzle room and you can't do this skip. While out of bounds, try
to do a sprint jump towards the exit without falling down. Remain close to the
corridor wall to finish the level.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLBAIyhaxY
"A child's toy in the room was the key to open the closed door that led to the
laboratory."
7-2: Electric Laboratory
"Only the buzzing sounds of the strange machinery could be heard inside the
laboratory."
Glitch control: if you get past the damage-dealing outer layer of an electric
wall, by for example hitting it while Gabriel is facing the wrong way, you only
come upon a huge invisible wall that prevents your passage.
By the way, there are at least three different ways to get past the damage
layer. One is to hit it facing the wrong way - Gabriel is also knocked away to
the wrong direction. Second is to Shoulder Charge through the damage layer.
Third is to use Ultimate Light or Shadow to interrupt the knockback animation
right as it starts.
Speed strat: the scene when you are entering the second part of the laboratory
can be skipped by Shoulder Charging through it. (c: findlestick)
Speed strat: the second puzzle can be sped up in an interesting way. It
involves getting to the left side of the area, then smashing yourself into the
electric fence without getting knocked away (by doing a backwards roll to it,
for example). From that location, you can shoot three Explosive Daggers in a
row towards the plate on the far right wall (skipping scenes in between the
shots). Then, just run past the electric walls as they toggle on and off. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY83sWaUk9A
Wasted potential: you can glitch up the level transition after the second
puzzle room using Ultimate Shadow, but it looks like you can't go out of bounds
from there regardless. (c: findlestick)
Speed strat: the scene when you are entering the final part of the laboratory
can be skipped by Shoulder Charging through it.
Sequence break: skip third puzzle and the Mechanical Monstrosity boss
After entering the third puzzle room, run to the breakable wall to the left. Do
a small high jump on top of the wall. From there, do another high jump towards
to your right to get over the invisible wall. Now you're out of bounds in the
corner leading towards the Mechanical Monstrosity boss fight.
Your next goal is to go around the boss arena out of bounds. The floor is
somewhat shoddy here, so be careful. Jump over a rough spot to reach the end of
the room where there's the huge egg - it's a safe area with good floor
underneath. Then, get around the corner and proceed onwards towards the exit
corridor. The floor is decent here, and you can normally run much of the way.
The red prism has to be picked up in order for the level exit to activate, but
it's not a difficult job to get: just backwards roll to the electric fence to
get close enough to the prism and pick it up. But then you must quickly touch
the level exit (inside the archway to the right) before the Mechanical
Monstrosity fight starts, as it is timed to start a few seconds after you've
picked up the prism. Avoiding the Boss fight, is reliably done by pressing the
select button as soon as you hit the level exit trigger. And thus you skipped
both the puzzle and the boss. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheH65NZffY
Other: you can kill Gabriel by running to an electric fence the same time the
Mechanical Monstrosity boss cutscene starts. The cutscene plays out like
normal, but afterwards Gabriel dies instantly in a very nonchalant looking
pose.
Other: you can use Dark Crystal right before the fight with Mechanical
Monstrosity begins. This causes the boss to appear during the cutscene, so that
there are two Monstrosities at the same time... the boss music also starts
earlier than normal. But afterwards, you get stuck like usual. This can also
happen if you attempted to do the above Monstrosity Boss skip, but failed to
successfully activate the final level trigger as you got the red lens.
"Gabriel was trapped in the electric cage, forced to fight the scorpion-like
creature."
"Gabriel reached the observatory, but he found that the mysterious device there
wouldn't work without its missing piece."
"Once Gabriel acquired the red prism, he only had to find his way across the
labyrinth to get to the Observatory."
7-3: Chromatic Observatory
"The mirrors inside the device channeled the moonlight towards the colored
prisms at the base, bathing the room in an eerie light."
"Gabriel explored the rooms surrounding the observatory, hoping to find an
exit."
Sequence break (full power): you can skip much of the level by high jumping
over the wall and getting past the purple-colored archway out of bounds. One of
the fastest (and resource-wise cheapest) ways to go about it is to liberally
abuse the Guillotine ascension tactic. Aim to the right corner of the purple
door, double jump high enough and then do a Guillotine. Gabriel will land on
some invisible collision, from which you can do a Whirwind Flap and another
Guillotine... the motion can be repeated around three times, and on the last
time you should aim towards the center of the doorway instead. possibly lob a
Holy Water at the top to inch slightly forward in air and drop to the other
side of the wall. If you end up stuck on collision behind the door, doing some
somersaults towards the next area will get you past it. Once you get inside the
room past the doorway, the boss cutscene begins in which Laura (fittingly?)
calls you a cheat. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqf-ZUVn31M
Speedrun strategy: you can skip the switch pulling for accessing the lens menu
by using Holy Cross while activating the switch. Saves some seconds.
Other / Speedrun strategy: By exiting the lens menu at the same time you choose
a lens combination that makes a door open, you're allowed to continue using the
menu while freely moving. This way you can mess around with the door openings
and such and glitch the camera angle during fights. Well, most importantly for
a speedrunner, you can move a lot earlier than normal after using the device,
saving additional seconds.
Untested - completing level while lens menu is open. That would be a real
challenge for many reasons, one of which is the awful camera. Second is that
activating some prompts in the lens menu closes it, and if you're not very
careful, you will end up doing that during the fight. But nothing interesting
should happen anyway... just an idea for masochists.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPlB8Y4uH_E
"Some Vampires would provide Gabriel with the Shadow Magic needed to activate
the magic tiles."
Speed strategy: if you do Shoulder Charges over the magic tiles quick enough,
you needn't bother with the Vampires at all.
Other: just backtracking to the central room from any smaller area opened with
the different lenses causes enemies to unload.
Sequence break: by using the Holy Cross exploit, you are able to escape from
the trap rooms after picking up the lenses before the gates close up on you.
(c: AKheon)
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid (at 01:05)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fva4LgyrBSk
"Dangerous Swordmasters also roamed around this part of the Vampire Castle."
"Laura saw how Gabriel fought her magically animated ragdolls."
Other: one time, as I was finishing the level and started attacking the corpse
of the last Deadly Toy that was left, I was sent to the "Level Cleared"-screen
without having seen the final cinematic but with the cinematic audio playing in
the background. The cinematic audio continued even as I went to another level.
8-1: Outer Wall
"Deadly icicles hung like crystal spears above Gabriel's head."
Other (full power): at the very start of the level, you can Wings jump over the
invisible wall to get back to Chromatic Observatory area. Of course it isn't
the real Chromatic Observatory, just an unloaded facade.
Speed strategy (full power): If you sprint/double-jump through the gap in the
rail towards the narrow vertical wall section. You can stand on an out-of-
bounds ledge (that faces the screen), from which you can do a minor high jump
in order to get within range of the second grapple. Thus skipping the first
climbing sections.
"A group of Vampires came out of their holes to attack Gabriel."
Sequence break (full power): skipping the rune gate
Just do a relatively high jump over the rune gate to skip activating the runes
or fighting Vampires. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F1q0jtXRc8
"Gabriel ran along the slippery surface of the giant chain that connected the
central tower to the rest of the castle."
Speedrun note: the shape of the chain can make your Sprint die at random times.
"Gabriel entered the circular platform that linked the two chains together."
Sequence break: skipping the key
Ignore the room beneath the circular platform where you normally get the key
from. Instead, run to the exit of the level.
Stomp on top of a statue to the right of the door to gain more height. From
there, do a Whirwind Flap to start a high jump. First you need to face the wall
and gain enough height to rise out of bounds, bypassing the ceiling. Then you
need to turn around and get a footing on the ceiling - Landslide Punch at the
end of the high jump should work for this. From the ceiling, jump towards the
back of the screen, and (after some slippery ceiling collision) you reach the
exit corridor. Backtracking to the gate will activate the level finish trigger.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BtM0bjhspE
Sequence break: skipping Swordmaster fight
You can use Holy Cross break out to cut the key picking up animation short,
allowing you to escape the room before it becomes sealed and the fight begins.
(c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi4ovHnN_R4
"A few torches illuminated the entrance room to the central tower of the
castle."
8-2: The Clockwork Tower
"Moving gears of various sizes and shapes filled the interior of the Clockwork
Tower."
Speed strategy: you can skip most of the first floor using Shoulder Charge long
jump, even without double jump.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's New Game-skip for Tower first floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=191
Speed strategy (full power): skipping the 2nd level
You have to turn the first crank, otherwise the final crank of the level won't
load. Position Gabriel as far left of screen as possible, and do a minor high
jump directly towards the screen (and very slightly left if you're having
trouble) you'll end up on top of a small ledge. If the camera angle doesn't
change while you are up there, lightly tap the left controller to your right
once to get a better camera angle. From here you want to do a sprint + double
jump towards the screen/slightly right, so that you end up just to the left of
where you'll see the neutral orb fountain during the jump. With some luck
you'll end up on the platform that's located under the final grapple point.
Then a double jump followed by a direct air attack will put Gabriel within the
grapple point's activation area. Use it to get to the final battle arena.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4_SXk8DiOM
2, findlestick's vid of older strategies for the 2nd level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wrQ6UxtP4o
Sequence break: skipping Mechanical Monstrosity II fight
First, you need some luck to turn the fighting arena crank all the way through
even with the boss pestering you. A good strategy to increase your chances of
turning the crank untouched, is to start turning the crank anti-clockwise
approximately 1/3 at the moment that you see the camera change as the
Monstrosity appears. Then just turn the crank clockwise all the way without a
pause. With luck, the Monstrosity will be forced to chase you around the crank,
then as it changes direction, his attacks may be forced past Gabriel's body.
It's also possible for the force of Gabriel's crank turning, to make the
Monstrosity's attacks cut short, and making it shift away harmlessly from
Gabriel (but this is if you're particulary lucky). Then, do a high jump over
the invisible wall separating you from the exit. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5-Mh5YhVxA
"The mechanical monstrosity that Gabriel fought in the laboratory had followed
him up to the tower."
8-3: Olrox
"Olrox roared ferociously for the death of his twin brother, and charged
Gabriel."
Sequence break: skipping Olrox and puzzle
One way to do this skip is done by first stunning Olrox (so he won't disturb
your high jump), then jump onto one of those winged-statues that surround the
arena, so pick one that is closest to the door. Then start a high jump, but
when you start to see out-of-bounds do a Guillotine attack on some collision up
there. This will enable you to stand on it and jump out-of-bounds to some
collision floor that only extends a little bit beyond the arena (so don't veer
too far). The final trigger is difficult to hit since it's surrounded by walls,
so you need to use both jumps to position Gabriel to directly under the floor.
Gabriel will fall out-of-bounds at that point, which isn't an issue once you've
hit the final trigger.
Findlestick has a different method which is slightly easier and more direct.
See those chains hanging across the roof? Well, after stunning Olrox, head
directly underneath the chain that is located directly to the right-hand-side
of the door. Do a launch, followed by a Avalanche Punch, an air Direct
attack...at that point you'll be directly next to the chain during your
technique. Then all you need to do is (in the same motion) is throw a Holy
Water onto it, and you'll end up standing on it. This is a much higher vantage
point from which to start another high jump, so do so over the right-hand-side
of the door. Once you see Gabriel go out-of-bounds you can jump onto a roof
that belongs to the hallway behind the exit door. Since you can stand on it,
either jump into the hallway to hit the final trigger (you can jump in from the
furthest side of the hallway) or use both jumps to position Gabriel to directly
under the floor.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzWejKJyMQ
"Without his supply of fresh Lycanthrope blood, the Vampire commander slowly
weakened."
"Olrox vanished, leaving only a pool of murky blood where he fell."
8-4: The Throne Room
"The snowstorm blasting the tower was getting stronger as Gabriel got closer to
the Dark Lord."
"Carmilla summoned her minions and retired from the arena, watching Gabriel as
he struggled against his enemies."
Wasted potential?: based on a single test, the cutscene where Carmilla
transforms does not start until any Dark Crystal-related scenes are over.
"The Queen of Vampires transformed into a monstrous creature, descended to the
arena, and prepared to destroy Gabriel."
9-1: Bones Forest
"The Seraph Shoulders helped Gabriel to overcome the obstacles laid out in the
desolate Bones Forest."
"With dreadful screams, the group of zombie-like creatures ripped their own
heads off and threw them towards Gabriel."
Sequence break: skipping Headless Burrower battle
After the battle starts, run through the yard and do a small high jump over the
left wooden obstacle. Start the jump from its right side to not get blown away,
and then do a hefty double jump towards the corridor behind the obstacle to get
around some extraneous collision below you. And thus you skipped this battle.
(c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBSpFkHwixs
Sequence break: skipping Chupacabra
Once you have used 2 grapples to cross a chasm, avoid hitting the Chupacabra
battle trigger, which can be tricky since it's very close to where Gabriel
should land. High jump directly over the trigger, but it's very important to
start your high jump from one single jump (or a non double-jump launch). This
is because soon you will be on top of slippery collision above the Chupacabra
trigger, and it's easier if you keep your second jump to be able to jump back
off it. When you reach a medium height, use consecutive water bombs to edge
over the trigger. When you suddenly see Gabriel land on the collision, jump
diagonally left/forwards and do a somersault forwards off the slippery
collision. This skip can be tricky since the slippery collision slopes down to
the left, and Gabriel has a strong tendancy to slide directly into the trigger.
This is why it's - again - recommended that your high jump is started from only
one jump.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ6HqHEou5c
"Without his relics, Gabriel would never be able to exit the Bones Forest."
9-2: Woes Moor
"Up to that moment, Gabried had found no trace of the three scarecrows inside
the abandoned town."
Sequence break: skipping the entire puzzle
Your first step is to go out of bounds. That can be done pretty conveniently at
the Baba Yaga's hut for example - a medium-sized high jump is enough. Then,
while roaming out of bounds, you'll see the keys floating beneath the map. Go
and fetch them. After collecting them all, retry from checkpoint and you'll
appear back on ground level... then just return to Baba Yaga. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmX2ZHM_nR4
"Although they were mainly made of wood, the scarecrows turned out to be
formidable opponents."
Speed strat: you can deal required 1000 damage to a Scarecrow extremely quickly
by Light Flash stunning them, then Ultimate Shadowing them just once.
"The flocks of crows that flew around the town were the key to awakening the
remaining scarecrows in the town."
Wasted potential: it seems impossible to break out of the post-Scarecrow battle
unskippable cutscenes using Dark Crystal.
Speed strat?: you can Holy Cross break out of the key picking animation, saving
miniscule amounts of time.
Other: there's a flock of crows you never have to move during the third phase
of the puzzle. If you go and attempt anyway, the camera may glitch up when
Gabriel grabs onto the pole they're perched on.
"Baba Yaga was impatient for her keys, so Gabriel raced towards her cabin once
he had got them."
9-3: The Music Box
"The Treacherous golden corridors of the music box were filled with traps no
bigger than a thimble, but still deadly."
Speed strategy: skipping the Music Box (c: findlestick)
It's possible to skip everything at the Music Box, you can go directly to the
final room from the first room, and grab the Blue Rose. This is thanks to a
collision flaw at the corridor located left of the Mechanical Music device,
that lets you go-out-of-bounds. The ledge there can be breached to the left and
right corners.
Here is a reliable method I use to skip the Music Box. Firstly make Gabriel
stand at the ledge with his back towards a small column located to the left of
the ledge. Then use your first jump to go into the death pit (with your back
towards the column), but before you hit the death floor use your second jump to
aim Gabriel's head/shoulders to go up backwards through the column. If done
correctly you will fly out-of-bounds.
Once you are flying out-of-bounds, do a Direct Air Attack followed by quickly
throwing a Holy Water Bottle to stop Gabriel hitting some death collision
located left-of-screen (this also acts as the start your High Jump technique).
Also, you have to stop Gabriel's flying-momentum at a correct distance from the
outside edge of the Music Box. If you go too far out, you can't reach up to a
certain ledge at the top of your High Jump. But if you stop yourself flying
out-of-bounds too soon, a roof of collision will stop your High Jump. If you
are at the correct distance from the outside of the Music Box, start doing a
High Jump which usually has to end with a Landslide Punch. The correct distance
is further than you might initially think. But as a general rule, if you can
see most of the Fire-trap corridor while you do your High Jump, it means you
are close to the right distance from the Music Box. Note that at this out-of-
bounds area, any collision you can see is solid. In other words, there are no
invisible walls or roofs to interrupt your jump. You only have to worry about
what you can see.
Once you on top of the Music Box, run on the first corridor towards the </pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
Electrical corridor. When you reach the end of this first corridor, high jump
over a minor invisible wall towards the Electrical corridor. When you reach the
Electrical corridor, jump and grab a ledge above it. Pull yourself up onto
another floor and run straight towards the Blades corridor. When you reach the
Blades corridor, grab a ledge above it. Pull yourself up onto a floor above it
and run straight towards the room that intersects the two final rooms.
Note that when you are on top of the Blades corridor, you should jump early
towards the intersecting room. The reason is that if you fall behind the Blades
corridor, you will get hit by blades and you'll be teleported back inside the
Music Box, thus ruining your skip. When you reach the intersecting room, I
recommend turning on one of your magics. Since Gabriel's textures are unloaded,
and you won't be able to see him otherwise.
Turn right at the intersecting room, and keep running in that direction until
you see Gabriel suddenly stop. There is an invisible wall in front of you, jump
up and grab a ledge and pull yourself up. Then keep running in the same
direction until you see Gabriel stop again, this means he is hanging off a
ledge. Drop Gabriel down from the ledge and keep running in the same direction
you were until you see Gabriel stop again. There is one final wall in front of
you, but this time you'll start hearing the audio of cogs and gears turning.
This is because you are now standing right above the Blue Rose, but it can't be
grabbed while you are standing above it. Luckily there is a secret invisible
floor just below the Blue Rose room from where you can grab the Blue Rose. And
this final navigation will get you there.
Right, so you are facing a minor wall while standing above the Blue Rose. You
need to do a small High Jump over it, making sure not to go too far past it, or
you'll fall out-of-bounds. When you are over the wall, you'll be standing on a
short floor of collision. Note that this floor of collision is at the same
height/level as the floor you just jumped from, so you're not under the Blue
Rose yet. You are still above it. Now keep walking in the same direction you
have been this entire time, until you see Gabriel start to fall. When you see
that, quickly do a small jump backwards. This jump takes you to a small floor
that is either just below the Blue Rose, or on the same level as it. It's hard
to know since you can't see anything, I assume it's underneath because when you
land on this floor, you then need to jump and grab towards the background to
finally grab the Blue Rose and get taken to the end level cutscene.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid of skipping the Music Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX4Gru8ElOM
Speed strat: you can Holy Cross break out of the Cylinder picking up
animations, saving a little time. Maybe.
Sequence break: skipping Red and Blue Cylinders
Using long jump, you can get over the chasms without the need for the Red
Cylinder. Doing this is faster both in that you needn't pick up the Red
Cylinder at all, and also there's less waiting at the other traps.
And you actually get the red cylinder automatically if you skip straight ahead
to the Magenta Cylinder. First there's a graphical glitch which makes the Red
Cylinder invisible, but retrying from checkpoint, everything is as if you never
skipped it. (c: AKheon)
However, playing through the level is a specific way, you can also skip the
Blue Cylinder. First get the Green Cylinder and insert it into the machine. Put
the machine on. Ignore the Red Cylinder and instead go straight for the Magenta
Cylinder. Returning to the machine, switch Green and Magenta Cylinders and
activate the machine. Now head for the Yellow Cylinder. After getting it go and
check out the machine. There first four slots should be in the following order:
Magenta, blank (actually Red), Green and Yellow. Now swap Green with blank.
Then swap Yellow with blank. Then swap Red with Magenta. This way the game
somehow gives you the Blue Cylinder into the blank slot, but you also get to
keep the Magenta Cylinder (unlike in any previous attempts at figuring out this
skip). And this combination allows you to finish the level. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid of Red & Blue Cylinder skip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrdXRrFBdok
2, AKheon's vid of only Red Cylinder skip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vstmHRW34hE
Other: if you skipped the red cylinder (and don't restart at some point) you
sometimes see two green cylinders inside the mechanism, after you've shuffle
them. This is not just graphical, but both greens function as greens do.
Wasted potential: Early Blue Cylinder
If you skipped the red cylinder (and got the magenta by long jumping across the
chasms), it's possible to make the blue cylinder appear in the mechanism right
away by doing the following. Swap the green cylinder with the "blank cylinder"
(you'll see red appear in the 1st spot), then swap magenta with blank and then
swap red with blank. The blue cylinder will magically appear in the 1st spot,
and it functions as it should, but the price you pay for getting the blue
cylinder early is that the magenta cylinder vanishes. It re-appears on restart,
but then you lose the blue. There may still be something that can be done with
all of this...I think I recall seeing an early yellow during an early test, but
can't confirm it at this date.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFdkKG9mBw#t=259
Other: if you got the magenta cylinder early, then randomly start swapping
cylinders around. You'll end up with a situation where all the cylinders will
become blank (with two of them graphically glitched). This can happen if you
end up with two cylinders of the same color, and then try to swap these two
same colored cylinders. You can even make the music box "play" the blank
cylinders. Nothing happens except you see a white scroll play at the bottom
of the screen with the timer counting down. It's unsure if the blank cylinder
activates any of the unseeable traps in the Music Box (though it seems
unlikely).
Other: if you skipped the red earlier and restarted, in order to correct the
colour glitches mentioned above. The tilting platforms that belong to the red
cylinder can sometimes become chaotic and unpredictable if activated, which is
undesirable for a speedrunner.
Wasted potential: you can drop out of bounds through the chasms here, but the
out of bounds floor is too far below that you could jump back up again. It's
unknown if you could activate the level finish prompt from under the level.
Strategy: having troubles with the flame spouts and electric traps? Simply use
the Shoulder Charge to zoom through the trap at the first instant where there's
nothing damaging in front of you.
"With each successive music cylinder, the blue rose moved closer and closer."
10-1: Titan Graveyard
"A deadly mist lay like a mantle over the cemetery of Titans, leaving only a
few small areas untouched."
Wasted potential: early Rune Stones
You can go out-of-bounds and end up under the map - from the first moment the
level starts - by doing Backwards High Jumps near most of the walls surrounding
the first climbing ledges. You can run underneath towards the end of the level
and see all the Rune Stones under there, but unlike at Woes Moor (which has the
keys you can actually grab while under the map). At this location you are too
far under the map to grab them, or do much else at this date.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid (@ the start)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii4jCm8j_ms
Speed strat: at the start, you can skip a little climbing by doing a high jump
from the starting spot. After a massive high jump, you are able to hit the
rappel jump far above. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of this and other tricks of this level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOPHsGTV1ck
Speed strat: after climbing out from the cave and watching the scenic cutscene,
you can do a backwards double jump from on top of the cliff and reach the lower
areas without climbing this way. It's also possible to drop past the death
collision, this is done by jumping to the right, dropping a little and then
doing a direct air attack. If done correctly, Gabriel will quickly end up on
the ground below unscathed. (c: satvara & findlestick)
Video demonstration (going over the death collision):
1, see the above vid
Other: Just an obsolete alternative route through the area. After reaching the
place where you fight the first Skeletons and Creeping Corpses, you can jump to
the higher platform where there are Creeping Coffins using a Gauntlet high
jump. The cliff to the back-right is low enough for this. If there are enemies
around, targeting with Landslide Punch is a nightmare, but fortunately you can
avoid triggering the fight completely by approaching the correct spot from the
far right side.
"Undead corpses lurked underground, replacing any destroyed floating heads as
they fell."
"The coffins scattered over the carcass of the Titan rose up and attacked
Gabriel as he reached the area."
Sequence break: skipping Creeping Coffin fight
You can jump out of the first Creeping Coffin fight using a small high jump and
some Holy Waters to land on the invisible wall to the back of the arena. From
there, double jump onward... The extended Titan hand is already there, albeit
invisible. You can use it to get to the second area, just like that. (c:
satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw
Wasted potential: you can Holy Cross break-out of the rune insertion scene, but
it doesn't really help because the next scene is timed to happen at a certain
time afterwards regardless you're free to move or not. Also, the time you have
available is scantly not enough to glitch up the cutscene with Dark Crystal.
Same applies to all occasions of using those keys in this level.
"The piece of the Magic Rune gave the Titan enough energy to perform one last
move, which Gabriel used to advance."
Sequence break: skipping keys
Original strategy to skip the keys was like this. At the screen where you
insert two last keys, you can do high jump in conjunction with Guillotine to
repeatedly launch yourself up the wall to the far left. After getting over
that, the next step is getting over another similar wall outside clear camera
view (since rocks block the view) to finally get roughly to where the invisible
Titan hand leading you to the exit is. Thankfully a normal Gauntlet high jump
quite reliably gets you on top of it (while remaining out of bounds), if you
find the correct position near the ground level as far back as you can go.
Then, last challenge. From the side of the arm, a Sprint jump towards an
invisible point to where the hand would extend to to hit the Mission Cleared-
trigger. (c: satvara)
As a questionable improvement to this strategy, you could use Ultimate Light to
get around the invisible collisions here. Going to the small shoreline around
the back of the place where you insert the keys allows you to jump over a lower
invisible wall instead of normal, maybe being faster. Also, I think there's
some precise spot where you can climb from the swamp straight "inside" the
cliff, so that you actually skip one of the jumps altogether. So, if executed
well, this tactic could be faster than satvara's original method... but it
drains Light magic in the process, up to half a bar. And it is overall obsolete
this day anyways. (c: AKheon)
The newest, fastest version does a small high jump from the opposite side
instead, where the Titan's left arm lay useless at the moment and where you'd
normally climb to the end of the level after fetching and using the keys. Just
a medium-sized high jump ending with Avalanche Punch to fall on top of the
floor close to where the invisible Titan arm extends. Don't start too close to
the walls or some invisible ceiling may block your jump. Also, it's recommended
to destroy the two objects nearby to stop Avalanche Punch from auto-targeting
those. From the top of the arm, a backwards double jump to the correct
direction and the level is finished. If done optimally, this strategy doesn't
even expend any Holy Water. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of the original strategy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiU1GD5cIw
2, satvara's vid of the newest high jump tactic (at around 0:30)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOPHsGTV1ck
Collision flaw: doing a small high jump against the Titan arm leading to the
exit from the front, it's possible to end up falling out of bounds. (c:
LegendK7II3r)
Video demonstration:
1, LegendK7II3r's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lWRgS7lEII
"Another Titan was awakened from eternal slumber to carry out one last duty for
Gabriel."
10-2: Fire Pinnacle
"As soon as the fight started, Pan drained all Gabriel's magic energy."
"Pan restored the flow of Light Magic, allowing Gabriel to regain health by
attacking him."
"Gabriel realized that he was not the only one with control over Light and
Shadow magic energy."
10-3: Fire Cemetary
"Using his acrobatic skills, Gabriel crossed the chasms inside the cemetery
canyon."
Sequence break: skipping Chupacabara
There are a few known ways to skip the Chupacabra's mirror puzzle in this area.
The first is satvara's method which involves doing a high jump to the right
(slightly diagonally North-East) of the Chupacabra's cutscene trigger. There is
a tiny piece of collision there that you can stand on, it's tricky to find but
you'll know you're on it when Gabriel's enters his 'falling' animation while
staying in the same spot. Anyhow, when you get high enough over it you can do a
Guillotine attack on it to then stand and jump over the Chupacabra's cutscene
(I recommend jumping forward and slightly right over the trigger). Skipping the
trigger lets you keep all your Relics, thus you can simply go & hit the two
mirrors and complete the level in record time.
Findlestick's latest alternative involves doing a speedy Shoulder Charge jump
over the chasm. If you succeed in it well and have enough momentum, you're high
enough at the other side to get on top of the invisible walls with a smaller
high jump than usual, speeding things up further. Or you can save your second
jump during this technique, in order to do a backwards double jump over both
cutscene triggers.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid (Original version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmUtYA-Un8
2, findle's faster version 3 (involving Charged Jump & minus Guillotine)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ZOO2jM2vk
Other: it's possible to activate both cutscene triggers at the same time while
trying to skip over them. This results in just one cutscene playing, but then
Gabriel gets totally stuck in place until restart.
Other: allegedly, by doing things in a wrong order here - opening the exit and
only then activating the Chupacabra sequence - you can lose all your powers and
then exit the level. This causes Gabriel to lose all his relics and the game
saves it. Good for challenge runs, maybe? (c: corneliab)
"The Chupacabras laughed at Gabriel from the relative safety of the magic
cage."
"Once he got back his Relics and powers, Gabriel could continue heading for the
crematory oven ahead of him."
10-4: Crematory Oven
"The Gravedigger summoned a number of creeping corpses, which proceeded to
attack Gabriel."
Speed strategy: using Holy Water, you can destroy all the Creeping Corpses
before they even turn into Creeping Coffins, making this fight merely few
seconds long.
"The Gravedigger and Gabriel exchanged blows in front of the massive iron doors
of the oven."
Wasted potential: if you sprint and double-jump through the Grave Digger
appearance trigger, you momentarily go through the trigger undetected. It's
like there is some sort of collision there that makes Gabriel "zip" during his
double jump, which might be the reason for this glitch. If you then quickly
continue pressing jump, you can lengthen the delay of the cutscene trigger,
thus you can make it all the way to the open exit door without the cutscene
playing. But there is an invisible wall preventing you from going through the
door. You can also make it all the way to the mechanism that opens the door.
But the moment you stop jumping during this cutscene-delay glitch, the cutscene
will quickly start to play. So I haven't yet been able to activate a Dark
Crystal, nor start the grab-prompt to activate the door mechanism before the
cutscene starts, to see how that affects the game.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=195
Wasted potential: Gravedigger ring-out
You can drop the Gravedigger out-of-bounds shortly after he appears, by luring
him to the falling platforms. If you can manage to keep Gabriel from also
falling, by doing some sort of high jump, you can then enter the arena and open
the large gate unhindered. However, there is an invisible wall preventing you
from going down the Oven. Also, using the Crystal seems to do nothing to the
Gravedigger's health while he is plummeting to oblivion.
Video demonstration,
1, findlestick's vid (at 0:23)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii4jCm8j_ms&t=0m23s
Sequence break: skip Gravedigger
After Gravedigger appears, wait on the collapsing bridge for a moment. When the
bridge has only one stone left, run off it to the actual fighting arena. Retry
from checkpoint when you can, and do a minor high jump towards the screen to
get out of the battle arena. From there get Gabriel to double jump under an
invisible wall to the right and use a couple of water bombs to land on a small
ledge attached to the arena. Then do a double backwards long jump in the
general direction of the far right of where the exit door is. If you manage to
not hit any of the plentiful death collision that's all around, you'll end up
walking on a large floor below the battle arena. While down there, walk towards
some cylindrical collision until the camera angle changes, showing you a
grapple point. Grab the grapple & proceed to climb up towards the end of the
level. (c: satvara)
However, there is another faster method that also uses no Holy Water. As the
Gravedigger appears, walk as far to the left, onto the section of collapsible
floor closest to the arena (dodging any attacks as required). Then keep Gabriel
in his Blocking Stance while facing the arena. As the section of collapsible
floor starts to drop, Gabriel’s Blocking Stance tricks the game into thinking
that Gabriel is momentarily standing on ground, when he is actually falling.
This enables you to do some ground moves in air, an exploit that lets you set
up a long jump to take you underneath the arena, and end up at the final
climbing section of the inside of the oven. Thus skipping the Gravedigger.
The technique is done in the following way. Do a half-launch while dropping,
then do an Avalanche punch towards the camera, followed by an air area-attack.
When Gabriel’s head is below the level of the arena floor, do a Backwards Long
Jump aimed roughly left of the middle of the cylinder. If done correctly,
Gabriel will grab a ledge belonging to one of the Oven’s final climbing
sections. If you find this too difficult, then aim anywhere towards either side
of the oven, there is lots of floor you can walk on. From there, wander around
until you see a grapple point, use it and continue as normal. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of version 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHC_H1yww6E
2, findlestick's vid of the faster version 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPJmGe-3Vu4
"Gabriel looked down at the swelling pool of molten metal, and continued
climbing through the debris."
11-1: Necromancer's Abyss
"Gabriel approached the mysterious device at the entrance to the Necromancer
Abyss."
Sequence break: skipping the Zodiac puzzle
Just do a high jump over the invisible wall in the way. (c: satvara)
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid of this and other tricks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QM_LPWOVC0
"The artificial eclipse had opened the path for Gabriel, but another obstacle
hindered any further progress."
Wasted potential: it seems very arduous to skip the plate puzzle. You can jump
on top of the invisible wall on either side the side, and from there jump on
some floor above the doorway... but there's still some high invisible wall in
front of you. You can also try to go from the left side, but you apparently
can't get close enough to the warp point that you could hit it and get back in
bounds.
"The Necromancer towers were filled with magic teleports that allowed Gabriel
to travel quickly between them."
Wasted potential: if you Holy Cross breakout of the mirror activations, the
camera glitches up a little and Gabriel is animationless, but nothing else
happens.
Other: unlike in the other levels of the game, here there's an invisible
"safety net" at the bottom of every chasm, and upon touching it the game
teleports you back to the nearest ground level with a yellow flash and no
damage taken. However, by doing Guillotine (and maybe other similar air
attacks), Gabriel may actually fall through the safety net, momentarily
scathing it as if it was ground. After that you fall into a pit like normal.
"The Necromancers were one of the most powerful foes that Gabriel had
encountered in his journey."
Sequence break: skip fighting Necromancer and most of the level (V2)
Do a minor high jump from the platform at the mirror that normally takes you to
the Necromancer battle (or from the closest moving platform to it). Gabriel
will touch the teleport collision that belongs to the area above him. By
touching the above teleport collision, the game thinks that you fell down from
one of the upper areas, so the game transports Gabriel to the next area above.
Then do another minor high jump to again touch more teleport collision above,
thus taking Gabriel to the upper-most area. From there you can make your way to
the mirror right of screen, that takes you to one of the switches that are
required to activate the mirror that takes Gabriel to the 2nd Necromancer
battle. Once you activate the switch, use the mirror nearby to go to the 1st
Necromancer battle. From there it's just a matter of high jumping over the gate
& activating the mirror on the other side, to get taken directly to the 2nd
Necromancer battle. (c: findlestick)
Video demonstration
1, sticklefind's vid (AKA findlestick)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjxxzqPhBE
Sequence break: skip fighting Necromancer and most of the level (V1)
Once the Necromancer fight starts, get to the right side of the exit gate. High
jump on top of the invisible wall, and from there... with a properly positioned
double jump, you have to jump or drop down to the switch area beneath you. Note
that the camera is not cooperating because of the Necromancer fight is still
going on, but the area is not hard to find. The switch area below is located
roughly underneath the area that has a single mirror on the other side of the
gate. Try do drop Gabriel out-of-bounds next to a coffin you see near the
single mirror. Get to the switch area and activate the exit portal switch - the
only switch that truly matters. After that, return to the Necromancer fighting
arena and do the first part of the skip (jumping over the gate) again. Instead
of dropping down, jump towards the center to reach the exit portal platform.
Video demonstration:
1, see satvara's vid above (at "skipping the Zodiac puzzle")
11-2: The Dracolich
"The Dracolich flew above the platform, launching fiery attacks with its breath
every time it swept over."
Other: if you try to high jump onto the Dracolich as it swoops Gabriel. The
screen can suddenly go black with no sound, with a PS3 error showing (something
like "Unexpected error"). You then need to restart the console, to fix it.
Video demonstration:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZcRO6Rhdk#t=360
Speed strat: Dracolich, like other large bosses, is suspectible to Dark Crystal
damage. It lowers the health of all its runes to minimum, so that they destruct
from only one hit.
Sequence break: skipping Dracolich
You can skip the entire "Colossus fight" section of this level! Run to the
opposite side from where you start from, then jump on top of the medium-sized
invisible wall, and from there backwards double jump to the final platform
where the ground level Dracolich awaits to be damaged and mini-gamed to death.
The hardest part in all this is turning around on the very thin invisible wall
to be able to do the backwards double jump. (c: satvara)
However, you can also just do a Shoulder Charge jump from on top of the
invisible wall, saving a little time and making this phase of the trick easier.
Finally, the last phase of the fight is not a big issue if you break a Dark
Crystal and hit the boss just once.
Video demonstration:
1, satvara's vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni1-isoMflc
"Gabriel stuck the cross in the bleached bone of the Dracolich to prevent
himself from falling down."
12-1: Final Fight
"Gabriel and Satan stuggled ferociously, their weapons clashing together with
blasts of Light and Shadow energy."
"The Lord of Demons shielded himself behind a row of magical barriers and stood
still, trying to regain his breath."
Sequence break: you can skip some normally unskippable cutscenes during this
fight by using a Dark Crystal right before them. So when you run through those
Light and Shadow rings and reach Satan, activate a Dark Crystal to do this.
Videos:
1, satvara's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-UBhRn9gVQ
4. Contact info & credits, etc.
-----------------------------------------
====================================
Copyright © 2013 Hannu Ratilainen
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html#SEC1
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders.
Newest version of this guide will always be at GameFAQs, so check there if
you're not certain.
====================================
For contacting, try the Youtube-accounts of either author.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AKheon
http://www.youtube.com/user/findlestick
Additional thanks (and links):
Satvara - for finding many, many crazy skips for this game.
http://www.youtube.com/user/satvara
FIN
