Bastion/Techniques

This page contains in-depth descriptions of the workings of advanced techniques that are useful in a Bastion speedrun, explanations of how to perform them, and also information on some minor glitches that can cause problems in a speedrun, or might be some day be found to be useful.

Item Duplication

The core glitch of the any% categories, makes it possible to sequence break the game and skip 2/3rds of it. To execute it you need to interact twice with an item you can pick up(Core, Shard, Upgrade Material) within a very short time window, which will cause it to get picked up twice(also giving you the experience for collecting that item twice). The only way to consistently achieve this effect is to bind the "Use\Interact" key to the mouse wheel and quickly scroll it while standing next to the item. The result is that if you duplicate a core or a shard, while in the Bastion you will have to interact with the Monument twice, and more levels than usual will get unlocked.

After picking up 14 cores/shards(so duping 7 of them - duping a core will give you a shard) the end of the game will be triggered, even though you didn't finish the Tazal Terminals.

An item dupe can be "missed". This happens when you didn't scroll the mouse wheel fast enough, left the range of the item while trying to dupe it, or lost control of the Kid because of a level-up.

Clips

Sometimes, with clever application of rolls, it is possible to get through or around some of Bastion's walls in a reasonably speedy fashion. In fact, nearly all walls and gates in the game can be clipped through, often skipping certain fights, switches, letting you take a shorter route through the level, or outright breaking the game. There is no specific technique to get through every single "nearly-solid" obstacle(even though it always includes rolling), therefore each specific clip will be explained in the individual level pages.

A lot of clips are made possible or easier thanks to the usage of mouse movement, which is used in a speedrun anyway thanks to being faster in general.

Text Skips

When after collecting certain numbers of shards/cores you use the Skyway for the first time in the Bastion to open the map, Rucks will start saying something and as long as he's speaking, even though you can select the next level on the map, you won't be able to Fly to it. Fortunately, there is a mechanic in the game that prevents Rucks from talking over himself; if he's already speaking, he can't start another narration line. If you get Rucks to talk while you access the Skyway, he won't start his Skyway narration(hence the "text skip") and you'll be able to immediately Fly to a level, thus saving time. Since there is a lot of differences in what happens in the Bastion in any% and ASL, the methods to perform specific text skips are explained on the route pages.

Camera Glitch

Let's just say that the pipe is magical and leave it at that

There are some specific rules governing the way Bastion's camera behaves, that can be abused to be able to retain control during some mini-cutscenes, effectively skipping them.

The basic idea is this: falling, or using a Carry On chance, centers the camera on the Kid and after the appropriate animation finishes playing, lets you move again. If this happens when the camera is locked on to something else, then that lock will be removed. If that lock was associated with losing control of the Kid - which is, in fact, the way all cutscenes in the game work(they are just artworks placed somewhere inside the level, too far to see them outside of the cutscene) - then that effect will also be removed, letting you move during the time when, technically, a cutscene is "playing". This is the Camera Glitch, which has some interesting effects.

This can be easily tested in the Hanging Gardens: simply fall off right after the camera centers on Zulf. It will return to the Kid faster than it's supposed to.

There is a small variation of this where, if you 'fall into' such a trigger, the camera will get locked, but you will still be able to control the Kid, because the camera centering happened before the lock, but regaining control happened afterwards.

The most common application of this glitch is done in the Bastion: If you get close to the Smoke Pipe, and at the same time fall, you will be able to move during the short Smoke Pipe cutscene. Now, remember that Storing a Core/Shard into the Monument every time also triggers a short cutscene: If you do that while during the glitched Smoke Pipe effect, in turn the Monument cutscene will also become broken, allowing you to continue moving or to almost immediately store another Core.

There are a couple more small applications of this technique, such as the History Books in the Bastion of NG+ categories, or the sleepwalk glitch of Jawson Bog, which has some particularly interesting effects. All of these will be explained in the Individual Level page of the appropriate level.

Pike Vaulting

Other Glitches

Jaunting

This is a glitch that only works with the -nofixedstep launch option. If you right click on the top bar of the game in windowed mode in the middle of the roll(which will pause the game), and then click back inside the game window, the Kid will be transported a great distance in the direction of the original roll. This can be used to perform some level skips similar to Pike Vaulting, although using this glitch is currently not allowed in any leaderboard categories.

An example of how a Jaunts Any% speedrun might look, done by Vulajin

Black Screen Glitch

If the Kid dies after activating a screen transition, sometimes the screen in the next area will be completely blacked out, although you will still have control of the Kid. This can happen, for example, at the end of Langston River - dying to small Peckers during the screen transition, causes black screen in Prosper Bluff - and at the end of Zulten's Hollow - dying to an Ura after interacting with Zia causes a black screen in the Bastion.

Softlocks

It is possible to accidentally softlock the game during a speedrun, in multiple ways, especially in the ASL category(yes, the less glitched category has more opportunities to softlock).

The most notable softlock is the only one that can happen in the NG Any% category: the one related to duplicating cores. Every time you store a Core, you have to build something in the Bastion. However, if you do not have enough types of buildings to build - which can happen if you didn't follow the route and visited the wrong levels - the game won't let you progress until you build something, even though you can't. The same can happen if you go back to the Bastion after entering a level in Any%, because then the game will ask you to build again and, in the same fashion, you can run out of available types of buildings.

[more coming soon]