Tricks

Metal Slug games don't have any major tricks, but there are a couple of small tricks you can perform to save time.

Firing Rate

• Crouching

Note: This trick doesn't apply to Metal Slug 1, nor does it apply to pistols in Metal Slug 2 and X.

Normally when you fire weapons (or throw grenades), there is a cap limiting how fast you can fire, but crouching bypasses this cap and lets you fire as quickly as possible. This rule even applies to weapons that fire slowly such as the shotgun and flame shot.

• Jumping

If you have the flame shot and you need to fire upwards, jumping increases your firing rate. This trick is most useful against Metal Slug 3's fourth boss because he can only be hit by upward shots. The current Metal Slug 3 run does not use this trick.

Cancel tricks

• Pistol Cancel

Normally when you run out of ammo, your character takes about a second to switch back to the pistol before you can start firing again. To cancel this delay, crouch during the switching animation.

Grenade trick (Metal Slug 1 only)

While crouching doesn't remove the rapid fire cap for throwing grenades in Metal Slug 1, running into an object does. This trick helps against the first and second bosses. However, it is sometimes difficult to perform this trick against the second boss because the plane sometimes floats flies too high.

This trick doesn't work against any other bosses because it's impossible or very difficult to touch them (stage 3 and 6), or you die upon contact with the boss (Stage 4 and 5).

Weapons

Note: This list is a (very) rough estimate and doesn't factor in ammo counts.

The weapons in order of strength are:

1. Zaibetsu Sword - Metal Slug 6 and 7 only
2. Flame shot - Damage can vary, depending on enemy size. In Metal Slug 1 this weapon is MUCH weaker, even weaker than the heavy machine gun.
3. Shotgun
4. Grenade Launcher
5. Laser
6. Enemy Chaser, Rocket Launcher, Iron Lizard, Drop shot - Out of these weapons, drop shot is by far the worst, even worse than the pistol in some cases.
7. Heavy Machine Gun
8. Pistol

Routes

Fortunately, route planning in Metal Slug games is easy because the fastest route is usually minutes faster than the slower routes.

Alternate routes didn't start until Metal Slug 3, which is why there is no list for Metal Slug 1-X. Also, Metal Slug 5 only has one stage with an alternate route (Stage 3), and it's much slower than going the normal route, which is why 5 is not listed.

Metal Slug 3

• Stage 1 - Take the top road
• Stage 2 - Don't go into the ice cave.
• Stage 3 - Enter the pipe at the top of the second wall
• Stage 4 - Again, the top road.
• Stage 5 - Good luck

Metal Slug 4

• Stage 1 - On lower difficulties (i.e anything arcade or below) the bottom route is faster. The top route might be faster on higher difficulties because you have more firepower for the boss, but this needs to be tested. The current hard difficulty run takes the top route.
• Stage 2 - N/A
• Stage 3 - Make sure you don't fall at the start
• Stage 4 - Take the top road
• Stage 5 - Open the first manhole and jump in it
• Stage 6 - N/A

Metal Slug 6

• Stage 1 - Stay on the bottom
• Stage 2 - N/A
• Stage 3 - Bottom route (you have to crouchwalk past some stairs)
• Stage 4 - Plane route (I think it's the bottom, have to double check)
• Stage 5 - N/A