Movement

Every speedrunner should place the most emphasis on movement. It makes the run faster in ways that the untrained eye cannot see and it makes the runner look very knowledgeable of the game.

Pilot

This is where the game allows you to control fox on ground based assault. Of all the methods of transportation this is the slowest and player should immediately seek a Landmaster or Arwing UNLESS the mission demands Pilot be used (i.e indoor assault)

Techniques

• Death Warping - Any time Fox dies he is sent back to a checkpoint (or mission start) in which he retains his current objective in which the game erases all progress in said objective. Any mission that uses death warping causes the in game timer to be inaccurate.

Landmaster

Very powerful but clunky controls. In some missions Landmaster is mandatory to progress so try to get the hang of the controls. Among all the controls the Ram Attack is it's best feature as it is fastest way of movement for it. Be wary as the instant the Landmaster becomes air borne without the use of up-flight it will immediately lose all forward momentum.

Arwing

The fastest from of transportation in the game. Can avoid taking damage from lasers with a well timed roll.

Techniques

• Constant Boosting - As long as the Y button is pressed repetitively a boost will occur. Thus when boost is empty from initial boost the meter will raise a tad bit and allow for another boost.

Game Modes

There are 2 main modes that can be used to speedrun: Story Mode and Survival. There is only 1 speedrun difference between the 2 - Survival Mode completely skips all save screens BUT limits you to only 3 lives. Survival should be the only mode selected when running this game until future categories become more developed (especially if more death warping strats are figured out which could make survival slowest mode for that category).

Weapons

Blaster

Very useful. Can be shot normally or charged up to Yellow, Blue, or Red. Combining the ease of movement with Fully Charged shot is extremely efficient. Bronze difficulty is where this weapon shines as the targets it's useful against are spread out and weaker allowing for charged shot to take them out

Machine Gun

Very useful when wanting to clear a lot of weaker aparoids. Useless on shielded enemies

Gatling Gun

A stronger version of the machine gun. Now all ground targets can be destroyed with ease. Weapon has no use at all in Any% Bronze

Rocket Launcher

Slow rate of fire but lots of damage dished out. Not used a lot in bronze since charged blaster does the job but it has uses on higher difficulties.

Sniper Rifle

1 Shot 1 Kill. If the enemy has health (shielded or not) it's destroyed in 1 shot. Does not destroy vehicles in 1 shot however. Weapon is extremely useful and recommended the higher the difficulty.

Plasma Cannon

This is used in only 2 instances, Mission 4 and Mission 7 autoscrollers. Weapon has infinite ammo and auto-locks when targeting enemy.

Grenades

Very powerful thrown weapon. Useful as once you throw it you can move on to another target / objective.

Sensor Bomb

A bomb that explodes when anything gets close to it. Has no known speedrun use.

Items

Bombs

Bombs are the strongest method of attack for an arwing. The majority of boss fights employ Bomb Strats since they don't explode immediately and allow you to shoot the bomb AND fire a barrage of laser shots as a combo.

Laser Upgrade

Green Upgrade

This is a standard laser upgrade. It upgrades laser strength by a factor of 1. 2 of these are required to max out laser strength.

Red Upgrade

This is an incredibly rare laser upgrade. It increases laser strength by a factor of 2 (max level). Only known set location for one of these is in Mission 1 - bridge just after falco needs saved (destroy the 2 transport barrels).

Barrier

Protects you from taking any damage and recoil for a set amount of time/damage.

Special Flag

A requirement for 100%. Every mission has 5 in set locations regardless of difficulty. Some are invisible and need shot...others won't appear till a specific enemy is destroyed.