Batman: Arkham City

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Starting to create a wiki of the tricks and glitches in the game. These work on all three versions of the game (these haven't been tested on Armoured Edition on WiiU though). Feel free to add things as you see fit!

Known Glitches

• Freeze Hover: Once you obtain the Freeze Grenades you can perform this trick on any railing or billboard where Batman does his "perching" stance. Simply walk to the end of the railing and start spamming Freeze Grenades and you will start moving towards the edge. After you go over the edge Batman will not fall but keep spamming grenades and he'll start gaining height. You can do this indefinitely and if you are outside you can rise even higher than the blimp and the layer of smog over the city. As soon as you stop spamming grenades you'll fall but you can use this to glide over the walls of Arkham City without getting shot at by the Gatling guns and explore Gotham City. Don't plan on landing anywhere though as it's all textures!

Uses in a Speedrun: Two known, firstly you can use it to skip the first Mr. Hammer fight in your first visit to the Steel Mill (NG+ only). Secondly you can use it when going up Wonder Tower to skip entering the "Maintenance" password, which not only skips that sequence but also makes Batman completely invisible to the Tyger guards (although it renders your Detective mode useless in that part of the game and completely inactive in the next!)

• Getting out of Bounds There are a number of areas you can do this, some of which can be seen at [1], [2], and [3]. Some of these are incomplete walls or ceilings that you can simply travel through, others are only big enough for a batarang.

Uses in a Speedrun

1)The one at the start of the first video that goes out of bounds south of the main gate can be used to perform the Robin Skip. Once inside the building you need to glide underneath Arkham City until you reach the subway entrance. Land on the one on the right and you will load the Subway area. From there you need to glide back the way you came and you'll be able to grapple up to part of the glass walkway above the street while still technically being in the subway (don't ask) from there you can glide to the sewer and enter the door that takes you to Collapsed Streets and continue the game as normal from there. In order to Robin Skip you will need to complete the fight before the Wonder Tower Base and save the Nurse in the Wonder Tower Base as well as performing a checkpoint restart sometime after entering the Wonder Tower Base area, otherwise you will not load the cutscene in Wonder City where Batman falls to the ground and hallucinates his parents.

2)The one in the sewer at the 2nd video can be used to skip two fights, one Silent Predator part and the first cutscene where Batman falls to the floor, dying. You will also miss out from being able to get the Line Launcher Tightrope upgrade. On your way to face Ra's Al Ghul in the sewers, after the part where you use the Line Launcher for the first time, stand in the left corner of the floodgate near what I think is a car battery and some corrugated iron. Stand on the rubbish and point your Line Launcher back where you came from at a 45 degree angle. As you scan to the right the camera should change angle and you know you have the right area. Use the Line Launcher and Batman will climb on top of the sewer. From there use the LL and glide to the BACK of the door that connects the sewers to the Collapsed Streets and you'll go into the out of bounds area of Collapsed Streets. Now comes the tricky part. You need to glide off the RIGHT side of the platform and round the building towards the elevator in order to spawn the door that leads to Wonder City, then land on the pipe and open the door. The floor on the other side isn't solid so you'll need to do a checkpoint restart. (Bear in mind that there isn't a solid floor and the pipe won't be solid unless you spawn the door, however some of the railing and platforms around the elevator will spawn). If this is too tricky you can jump in the water near the building and you'll still have skipped one fight and a long cutscene. Video here: [4] but watch out for my celebrating if you have the volume turned up! The Robin Skip outlined in 3) is about 7 seconds faster than this and the two are mutually exclusive but I'm leaving this here as it's still viable for a 100% speedrun

3)You can get into the 3rd Riddler room by gliding through a gap in the railings around the side of it and skip the first 2 Riddler rooms, although if you do this you will need to use the Line Launcher Tightrope to get out otherwise you'll be trapped forever. Bear in mind as well that going into the room and out again without having started the "Enigma Conundrum" sidequest will cause the game to softlock if you head into Park Row, so make sure you have the Enigma decoder or try this on a file you don't mind using! You can use this glitch (without actually going into the Riddler Room), the Freeze Grenades, Line Launcher and some good gliding to get to the Collapsed Streets without talking to Hugo Strange. This is quicker than using the OOB in 1) Bear in mind that for some reason doing this will permanently lock the room that Bruce Wayne starts in and as such you will not be able to get inside to nab the trophy (unless you do it in NG+)

• Processing Center Early: You can get back into the Processing Center from Wonder Tower Base. If you go through that exit you'll see a weak ceiling that you can normally only destroy from above and a Riddler Trophy in a case. You can use the Line Launcher to get on top of the case and from there Gel the ceiling to get through. When you do this, one of the walls in the Processing Center will be missing, and you can glide under the Bowery. Once you get underneath the glass walkways you will be able to grapnel up and you should be able to find a loading zone for the Bowery from there. This can be used to skip the fight between Ra's Al Ghul and saving Mayor Sharp.

• Gate Skip For a speedrun this is NG+ only. On most of the gates in the Museum (specifically the ones that open all the way) you can use the Line Launcher Tightrope to glitch through the gate. You need to be either travelling at speed or at an angle and activate the Tightrope as you are about to hit the gate. Bear in mind that if you use this to enter the Museum without activating AND deactivating Penguin's Jammers then you will be unable to complete the museum. Also you have to open the first gate if you're playing with Catwoman otherwise the gate will still be locked when she goes in to defeat Two-Face. You can also use this glitch on some of the gates protecting Riddler Trophies.

• Shoryuken Glitch: When Batman Shoryuken's Penguin in the museum, if you press the punch button and are far away enough then Batman will miss Penguin entirely (sometimes he'll gently nudge Oswald on the chin instead). Doesn't save time but looks good - it will still trigger the cut-scene and Grundy Boss fight as usual.

• Smoke Bomb Glitch You can use the Smoke Bomb moments before falling into water and you will not teleport but instead be stuck underneath with a very odd-acting camera. The easiest place to replicate this is in the first room of the Steel Mill with the water.

Other Skippable Areas/Shortcuts

• At the start of the game, when going to the Courthouse, you don't have to fight the guys outside the courthouse if you use the entrance on the first floor. You can also dive through the window inside instead of taking out the gunman above which is faster but you'll have to be careful that he doesn't shoot you! He follows Combat Gunman mechanics (i.e. he'll take his sweet time to actually shoot you) and he will be unable to hit you if you're under the balcony.

• In the church you don't have to grapple up to the gargoyles after using the smoke bomb but you'll need to be ready with some 'rangs on the thugs otherwise they will kill you! Also you can avoid the tutorial on Double Takedowns, Ledge Takedowns and Breakable Wall takedowns if you don't look directly at any of the hostage-takers.

• In the Steel Mill in the room with the dodgems, you don't have to go around the outside to take out the guards - you can dive through the window! However you will be shot and killed unless you distract the guards with a Batarang thrown through the window at the patrolling thug.

• Poison Ivy can take out her own guards with her blasts when in her lair as Catwoman but this will usually involve getting hit by it.

• In the museum you can skip most of the rafting section by using the grapnel boost on the scaffolding, hence avoiding the section where you must use the Bat Shark Repellent (a flurry of swift punches) on the Shark. You can also slide and do ONE diveroll on the ice provided the slide comes out before you take any steps.

• Grundy: You can zap Grundy with the REC gun to heal him which stops the plates from healing him, thus making them easier to destroy. You can actually gel the plates while they are active although getting the gel in place requires that Batman completes the entire animation uninterrupted so you have to be careful about your angle. Finally when taking down the Penguin, you can slide THROUGH his rockets and you can also Ultra Stun him rather than beatdown as it's quicker.

• Chasing the Ninja: You can use the grapnel boost to gain speed here but you can't get too far ahead otherwise the game thinks you are too far behind and you'll Game Over. Either land early or glide very close to the ground. The ninja is programmed to be slightly faster than you so with good gliding you can speed her up. This is, of course, skipped using the Robin Skip described above.

• Sewer Glitch: You can go OOB in the Sewer and skip several minutes of gameplay as above.

• Wonder City: You don't have to fight the ninjas when scanning the guardians as long as you keep the camera centered on the guardian you are scanning. You can even fight/counter them although bear in mind that countering a bladed attack (orange indicator) will move the camera for you. Using a Smoke Bomb will stop all ninjas in their tracks for long enough to scan a guardian.

• Mr. Freeze: If you perform a takedown on Freeze near an "environmental" hazard (i.e. the Magnets, Breakable Walls or electrified floor) then you can take him down without waiting for him to become vulnerable. Be aware that it is still possible to attack him too soon!

• Protocol 10: When scanning helicopters to get the Master Code, it is always the 6th helicopter. As mentioned above, you can go OOB to skip the fight in the Processing Center.

• Wonder Tower: You can ignore the fight at the top of the elevator by simply gliding out and climbing up. You can also use the Grapnel Boost or Freeze Hover to grapnel up to the main room without entering the "Maintenance" code. Doing so will make Batman completely invisible to the guards, but not Hugo Strange. It will also disable Detective Mode when taking out Joker's Snipers unless you die or Restart.

• Joker's Snipers: You can use the Batclaw Disarm to yank the guns out of the snipers' hands. If they fall off the building then the sniper will be unable to get another gun and you will not need to knock him out. Technically you only need to knock out the two thugs in front of the movie theater.

• Two-Faces Museum: You can skip the fight in front of the Museum by running in without alerting the thugs outside. The fight in the Gladiator Pit can be skipped by sliding under the gate (although if you deactivated the electrified doors as Batman, you can't use them unless you win the fight first). When facing Two-Face you only need to take him out regardless of how many guards can see you do it. Bear in mind the guards respawn indefinitely.

General Hints and Tips

• Multi. Batarang. Takedown. That's pretty much all that needs to be said on the subject.

• Grapnel Boost. Getting this saves more time than it costs due to increased travelling speed and the experience that gets you an extra level (ensuring that you can get the Multi-Batarang Takedown before the Steel Mill)

• Any fight/stealth mission will finish with Batman doing a slo-mo takedown on the last enemy. Press A/X to cancel this. In a fight, the last enemy will immediately have his health reduced to basically 0 meaning that it will only take one more strike to take him down. If the last enemy is a Lieutenant, he will take 20 strikes instead of 50. If the last one is a Titan then you only need to do one set of strikes on him and not three.