AKheon | Eat Lead: the Return of Matt Hazard - some more skips @AKheon | Uploaded January 2022 | Updated October 2024, 20 hours ago.
I found a new lead for breaking the game: the cover system. Sometimes when there's cover surface intersecting some collision, Matt is able to clip inside the collision in the process of covering. A practical application of this would be f.e. if there's a closed doorway that has some cover surface to the sides, and covering lets you clip through the closed door.
I spent two afternoons (which I'll never get back) going through this game and testing the doorways with this exploit in mind. Here are all the most useful findings so far.
To note, these are probably not all the cover clips from the game since some of them are so random that I probably just couldn't get them to work in a reasonable amount of time.
0:00 - in Level 1, you can skip a fight after Sonny Tang encounter with the cover clip. This is fairly easy to do, but the time save isn't huge either since I believe there are only a few enemies you'd have to fight.
0:26 - in Level 2, you can skip a large fight outside the casino manager's office by clipping in there early. Unfortunately, there's a caveat: since the door never opens post-fight, you get stuck inside the office after the cutscene and must break out again, and clipping through the door from the inside is MUCH harder than it is from the outside. I wonder if it was possible to create a setup for harder clips like this?
Reaching the office door without fighting the enemies is a challenge in itself since this game can be rather random and cheap with enemy damage (yes, even on Easy-mode). I shoot two enemies that are in the way to help Matt survive a bit longer, but generally speaking, it can be pure RNG to run past enemies like this.
1:19 - in Level 5, you can skip the semi-large fight inside the cinema by doing another cover clip. This one can be finicky to perform as well, and I'd imagine that if you're good at the combat, it might be easier to just fight instead of trying to do this clip.
1:49 - some wasted potential in Level 6. You can clip early into an elevator around the half-way point of the level, but nothing happens.
2:14 - another bit of wasted potential from Level 6. You can clip into the area the game calls the "Mana Lab" early, but there's a second locked door in the way which so far I haven't been able to cover clip past.
Then again, the way the triggers work in the area might prevent this skip from doing anything anyway? It's hard to say.
2:42 - in Level 7, you can skip the large brawl before entering the ship. This one I'm quite proud of, and it doesn't require cover clip to do either: you just have to sprint through the open doorway of the boat as fast as you can before it closes at the start of the fight. Might be the single biggest skip in the game so far? Picking up the shield on the way is pretty much necessary to survive the trip.
3:02 - another Level 7 skip: you can skip a fight before the Sting Sniperscope cutscene. I'm not sure about the potential time save. I do know that it's a bit finicky to do - the enemies spawn close enough that they can come and melee kill you - so a half-decent player might realistically prefer doing the fight instead of trying to clip.
3:23 - an observation from Level 8 that might come in handy in a TAS or something. You can use the sloped surface of the planks to get some height and enter the 2nd floor from an unintended direction. This might work as a shortcut, although it's difficult to pull off.
I recall from my playthrough on stream that there was another (easier) spot in this area for doing this, but I didn't test it now when playing offline.
3:54 - one more cover clip in Level 8 to skip the first dev team avatar fight. I think this is also a bit random to pull off.
I found a new lead for breaking the game: the cover system. Sometimes when there's cover surface intersecting some collision, Matt is able to clip inside the collision in the process of covering. A practical application of this would be f.e. if there's a closed doorway that has some cover surface to the sides, and covering lets you clip through the closed door.
I spent two afternoons (which I'll never get back) going through this game and testing the doorways with this exploit in mind. Here are all the most useful findings so far.
To note, these are probably not all the cover clips from the game since some of them are so random that I probably just couldn't get them to work in a reasonable amount of time.
0:00 - in Level 1, you can skip a fight after Sonny Tang encounter with the cover clip. This is fairly easy to do, but the time save isn't huge either since I believe there are only a few enemies you'd have to fight.
0:26 - in Level 2, you can skip a large fight outside the casino manager's office by clipping in there early. Unfortunately, there's a caveat: since the door never opens post-fight, you get stuck inside the office after the cutscene and must break out again, and clipping through the door from the inside is MUCH harder than it is from the outside. I wonder if it was possible to create a setup for harder clips like this?
Reaching the office door without fighting the enemies is a challenge in itself since this game can be rather random and cheap with enemy damage (yes, even on Easy-mode). I shoot two enemies that are in the way to help Matt survive a bit longer, but generally speaking, it can be pure RNG to run past enemies like this.
1:19 - in Level 5, you can skip the semi-large fight inside the cinema by doing another cover clip. This one can be finicky to perform as well, and I'd imagine that if you're good at the combat, it might be easier to just fight instead of trying to do this clip.
1:49 - some wasted potential in Level 6. You can clip early into an elevator around the half-way point of the level, but nothing happens.
2:14 - another bit of wasted potential from Level 6. You can clip into the area the game calls the "Mana Lab" early, but there's a second locked door in the way which so far I haven't been able to cover clip past.
Then again, the way the triggers work in the area might prevent this skip from doing anything anyway? It's hard to say.
2:42 - in Level 7, you can skip the large brawl before entering the ship. This one I'm quite proud of, and it doesn't require cover clip to do either: you just have to sprint through the open doorway of the boat as fast as you can before it closes at the start of the fight. Might be the single biggest skip in the game so far? Picking up the shield on the way is pretty much necessary to survive the trip.
3:02 - another Level 7 skip: you can skip a fight before the Sting Sniperscope cutscene. I'm not sure about the potential time save. I do know that it's a bit finicky to do - the enemies spawn close enough that they can come and melee kill you - so a half-decent player might realistically prefer doing the fight instead of trying to clip.
3:23 - an observation from Level 8 that might come in handy in a TAS or something. You can use the sloped surface of the planks to get some height and enter the 2nd floor from an unintended direction. This might work as a shortcut, although it's difficult to pull off.
I recall from my playthrough on stream that there was another (easier) spot in this area for doing this, but I didn't test it now when playing offline.
3:54 - one more cover clip in Level 8 to skip the first dev team avatar fight. I think this is also a bit random to pull off.
