Uploaded October 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
While the developers properly set it up so that this doesn't happen when you're JUST in fine view mode, swimming in a pool of water, going into fine view, charging the sonic pistol, and then wandering onto land will result in Kate continuing to play her "swimming" animation.
Kate will keep playing this animation unless you fire the sonic pistol or go out of fine view. Once you've done either of those, Kate instantly drops back to the ground like normal.
Realistically, swimming on land only has comedic value since traveling like this is insanely slow and not advantageous at all, but it's amusing to see Kate gently float through an environment.
While the developers properly set it up so that this doesn't happen when you're JUST in fine view mode, swimming in a pool of water, going into fine view, charging the sonic pistol, and then wandering onto land will result in Kate continuing to play her "swimming" animation.
Kate will keep playing this animation unless you fire the sonic pistol or go out of fine view. Once you've done either of those, Kate instantly drops back to the ground like normal.
Realistically, swimming on land only has comedic value since traveling like this is insanely slow and not advantageous at all, but it's amusing to see Kate gently float through an environment.
![Saira - 56.3s speedrun [Commentary] (F12, worst ending)
This is my any%, single-segment speedrun of Saira for PC, getting the worst ending in under a minute. This exclusively uses the Developer Mode to zip around the environments, so this is not intended to be a legitimate run its just for fun.
Developer Mode: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqG2-zOTyok ]
You can see this run without commentary here: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FibbsNLn2M ]
By pressing F12, you can teleport to your mouse cursor and pass through walls, so I use this to bypass most of the games obstacles and grab only the essential items. Additionally, you dont expend your ships battery power moving between systems. For the quickest time, this means getting one of each item (targeting unit, impulse charge, amd fuse) and minimizing the travel time between the necessary planetary systems.
Lomond has the homebrew impulse charge, Haakon has a basic targeting unit, and Hoffman has a standard fuse and latter two planets are in the closest systems to Austra. Although you can slightly change the route and still pick up all three items, you spend slightly longer moving the cursor between planets. Additionally, Hoffman and Haakon only require you to move through three screens a piece to collect the item, whereas other planets can be up to five.
Since using the debug mode lets you skip traveling to related planets to get your ships battery recharged, it means you can judge planets purely on how many screens and how long it takes to travel to them. Though currently kinda untested at the moment, I believe the best route for a non-F12 speedrun would be Lomond - Hoffman - Hulton. This would let you quickly access the battery charging stations, while having relatively simple puzzles to address.
Probably the biggest error in this run is not being able to work the teleporter input very fast, slowly getting the items placed. This is because of complications with the keyboard layout, where I had to switch between holding F12, working the action keys, and maneuvering the mouse, so its a little difficult to do quickly and accurately!
I timed this from the moment the screen goes black after selecting a new game to the point where the screen begins to fade after activating the teleporter. The exact time is 56.267s.
Of note, this wasnt recorded with FRAPS because it actually slows down the map menu. Its best to use a different recorder to keep the game running at normal speed, otherwise this run would be over a minute by a fair margin.
Recorded on 01-19-2013. Saira - 56.3s speedrun [Commentary] (F12, worst ending)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6zMBN0vr9Uw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Physics Crush [glitch] - Dark Storm VR Missions
Ever wanted to vaporize a guard by falling on him? This trick lets you instantly knock a guard nearly out of existence by getting next to him and lying down, leaving no trace of the body.
This can be done with any soldier you encounter. Simply approach the guard while in a standing or crouching pose, get extremely close, and then press Ctrl to go prone. If you did it right, the guard will disappear in a single frame with a loud crashing sound. This sometimes also works by starting in the prone position and standing up.
I believe this happens because of Ambers collision box: When standing up or crouching, her hitbox is much differently shaped than when shes prone, particularly its flatter and pushes out horizontally. Shifting from a narrow cube to a flattened rectangle poses complex physics calculations for anything caught in the transition between.
Its difficult to tell exactly what happens, but I believe it displaces the soldier upward to make room for the prone collision box at an extremely high velocity, which launches them into the stratosphere. Alternatively, it could potentially push them through the floor or into a wall based off unpredictable physics. (If you would like to see these collision boxes, press tilde [`] to open the console and type show collision.)
This probably isnt extremely valuable, but it could be quite useful in a number of circumstances.
1) Its done within the same range as the standard combat takedown (CQC),
2) its faster than the combat takedown, and
3) it typically immediately disposes of the body.
Nonetheless, it sometimes triggers guards because its noisy. Additionally, the guard isnt always vaporized, hell sometimes just be pushed into a wall and capable of spotting you because of some unfortunate vision issues. Its quite easy to perform and sometimes youll do it by accident even just standing up next to a guard.
Its worth noting that Ive gotten Amber caught in a animation loop where she switches constantly between standing and crouching position. This has similar effects to standing-to-prone method, but I havent found it possible to do consistently without the animation glitch from standing-to-crouching.
These clips were recorded in Prototype 0.6.7.
Despite the video, I actually enjoy this game a lot even in this pretty glitchy state, and Id love to see it finished. If it looks interesting to you, be sure to check out the Kickstarter or download the demo on Steam and try it yourself.
Kickstarter: [ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1201252455/dark-storm-ascension ]
Steam: [ http://store.steampowered.com/app/395150/ ] Physics Crush [glitch] - Dark Storm VR Missions](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7d3BqWrZqf0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Alter Echo - Citadel: Inside shortcut
Here are two tricks to speed up this somewhat tedious level, one small and one big, bypassing probably the hardest fight in the game. In both cases, you use the Morph Pounce to jump further than normally possible.
Morph Pounce: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EqND43sh4M ]
On level 48, you can Morph Pounce on the first stealth track to reach the higher path a little quicker, avoiding the slightly longer path and stealth track.
The main meat of this video is after the first battle, where we can jump past a spawner to proceed right to the end of the map. After the long descending stealth track, get on the path and Morph Pounce forward over the spawner. You have to do this from the stealth track right in front of the health node, but its extremely easy to leap over to the walkway across the gap. Once you land on this long and winding platform, you can just walk up and toward the elevator to finish up.
This is easy and fast, and makes this entire area less risky. It likely saves over a minute or two. Since the fight you skip here combines some of the most irritating enemy types in a confined space, its hard to keep yourself healthy anyway, so ignoring it entirely is unbelievably useful. Alter Echo - Citadel: Inside shortcut](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8BjwggpIJNQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Tobes Vertical Adventure Unused Content
A compilation of all the cut content I could find in the game. These were found by messing with the games files.
There are four test levels inside the files, though theyre not accessible unless you modify the files manually. test1 and test2 crash the game regardless it seems, but test3 and testempty both work when renamed to the appropriate act number you want to replace. Watch this video for more information: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQLd4ViKOBA ]
test3 and testempty are just a line of blocks, although test3 has the distinction of a small plant on the leftmost block.
More importantly, there were several enemies that didnt make the final cut. It includes a bat (M_Bat), an unused world 2 jumping plant enemy (M_Jump2), a world 1 flying plant enemy (M_flying), a skull with some unusual animations (M_skull), and a big tortoise (M_tortoise).
The bat has an state for both hanging from the ceiling and flying, which presumably means it was activated when Tobe got near it.
The flying plant enemy was likely cut simply because they didnt end up having a level in world 1 that incorporated them. Additionally, unlike the other flying enemies, players would probably expect to be able to bounce off of these, despite them probably filling the role of the flying Gordo enemies in worlds 2 through 4.
The skull is somewhat of a mystery. The fact that its animations fit so well with the rock enemy gives the idea that it was a living skull that would leap up at players, but its also possible that it was just a skull with variable orientation for level decoration.
The tortoise seems to fit in well with the boars animation, but its somewhat difficult to guess its role. Its a big enemy, which implies it was designed to factor into at least a few levels, but it might also have been the original version of the enemy that eventually became the boar.
Other enemies that were included in the game (by filename):
M_boar: world 3 warthog/boar enemy
M_bounce: world 4 floating triangular headed enemy
M_cyclop: world 4 floating Gordo enemy
M_fireball: world 3 floating Gordo enemy
M_iceball: world 2 floating Gordo enemy
M_lava: world 3 fireball that leaps out of lava
M_rock: world 3 green jumping enemy
M_walk: world 1 walking plant enemy
M_walk2: world 2 walking plant enemy
M_walk3: world 3 walking plant enemy
M_zomb: world 4 walking plant enemy
To edit any of these enemies into the game, you have to replace one of them. For example, if you wanted to have M_zomb instead of M_walk, you must rename M_zomb to M_walk, and the old M_walk into M_zomb. You must make sure all enemy names are accounted for before you can power up the game otherwise, it will crash.
If you edit an enemy into an inappropriate enemy, their graphics will obviously become glitched as the game is trying to read their animation tables incorrectly.
In addition to the unused enemies, there is also unused scenery. By exploiting the games file structure, you can force the game to display levels with a different tileset, which gives you a look at some of the features made for but not used in specific worlds. See this for the video explanation: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQLd4ViKOBA ]
I show off the doors for both world 1 and 3; a world 1 lava/deadly liquid tile; world 1 crushers; world 3 buttons, spikes (useless since world 3 has lava), and ceiling spikes. In the same clip as the last set, I show off an unfinished tile for the vines that hang along the ceiling: in the world 3 tileset, they become an orange picture with the world RING inside. Tobes Vertical Adventure Unused Content](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8E3vhPiVff8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Zack Zero - Bump Jump (speedrun trick)
Every time you take damage while in the air, you get your double jumps back, as long as the attack doesnt knock you down. This isnt super useful compared to the Infinite Jump trick, but its simple and notable.
Infinite Jump: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no94fys5y5I ]
Its of course easiest to do this using the Fire forms Surf, and with enemies that damage you by touch. Bullets and some normal enemy attacks work as well, but damage from Generals and Captains wont work. The rare environmental hazards (spikes, supply carts, flying pods, etc.) give you a similar boost.
In case you fall from an Infinite Jump, this is a potential way to save yourself, so its worth knowing about. Zack Zero - Bump Jump (speedrun trick)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8SZUkdkD3JM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Tobes Vertical Adventure - Sign Float + Anti-Grav Bounce (co-op trick)
Similar to what PewableShift found with the Jump Rope trick, I found that briefly clinging to a wall and activating a sign shortly afterward results in an extremely slow fall. When you use this in co-op, you can make one character fly straight upward without limits.
PewableShifts YouTube: [ http://www.youtube.com/user/PewableShift/featured ]
Jump Rope trick: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v nC6OgY5aOM ]
So first, go to either act 1 or 2 of world 1 and find a sign next to a wall. Jump onto the wall and touch it briefly, pressing down to read the sign in the split-second transitioning between animations. If you did it right, you begin to descend extremely slowly. (Also note that you can do this from a slide on the wall as well, but it will result in a much faster fall.)
This state allows you to jump as many times as your character allows as if they were on the ground, but it will break them out of the trick. Keep in mind, this can be done while activating goal treasures as well, but unfortunately that has some limitations that Ill get into shortly.
If you want one character to be boosted infinitely into the air with a crazy anti-gravity move, activate this trick and have the other character stand underneath the floating one. Once the falling character gets low enough, theyll bounce off of the other and shoot into the air really fast. Theyll keep going until they collide with the ceiling, which will only stop them from ascending or descending until they decide to jump.
Again, this works with both characters and lets Tobe reach some areas he normally couldnt.
This is theoretically usable on the goal treasure where one character performs the Loot & Scoot to dive below the treasure and the other performs the Sign Float so they can do an Anti-Grav Bounce off of the former. Unfortunately I imagine the minigame sequence will cancel the flying, meaning that not only would you be limited to whatever served as the roof directly above the wall you performed the trick on, but you would lose the benefit of setting up such a hideously complicated move to begin with.
Loot & Scoot: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxB5FYdriU ]
As I showed off in the Jump Rope trick video, I found a way entirely by accident to make Nana float upward in a similar manner. Im still not sure how I did it, but the fact that this is also possible in single player has some crazy potential.
I found this trick months ago, but its unfortunately taken me forever to get it uploaded! Tobes Vertical Adventure - Sign Float + Anti-Grav Bounce (co-op trick)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9AROAv3bl8o/mqdefault.jpg)
![Camera Focus Error [glitch] - Zack Zero
This fight with Silobnic tries to lock you in with an invisible wall, but its easily bypassed, resulting in this bizarre camera glitch.
On level eight (Caught in a Web), work you way to the very end of the stage and trigger the boss fight against Silobnic, the giant mechanical spider. Then, head backward towards the overhand at the entrance of the arena and leap up to the highest platform. Run off the edge, double jump, and surf over the pillar of green fire. Despite being designed to block you from escaping, the pillar isnt tall enough to stop you. Once youre over it, you can continue backwards through the level, but the camera will pivot based on the boss arena, leading to a wildly wrong angle.
Its also incredibly easy to jump over the invisible wall using the Infinite Jump.
Infinite Jump: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no94fys5y5I ]
Obviously, the collision box on the pillar of green smoke wasnt as tall as it needed to be. This wouldve easily been found in normal circumstances, but I think this game suffered from a lack of QA testers. Regardless, I thought this was amusing enough to share on its own, though it serves no practical purpose.
If youre interested in seeing how to glitch this fight out to make it go quicker, check out this video:
Faster Silobnic fight: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AicKx6vAgSA ] Camera Focus Error [glitch] - Zack Zero](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9S6dvYC4rkI/mqdefault.jpg)



![Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-2 Lantern shortcut
The lanterns serve as checkpoints that respawn you when you die. Each of the lanterns has a custom spawn location designed by the developers, and as far as I can tell, this one in the second map of Mystic Caverns is the only one which allows you to glitch into the environment and boost you upwards very fast.
The spawn location of this lantern is set too close to the wall, and simply holding left lodges you inside of the blocks to the left. The game handles this problem by throwing your character to the very top of the set of blocks, just like it does with the screen wrap glitch. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOzYbDCWEe8 ]
This saves a very small amount of time in a speedrun, but its amusing and simple to do. Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-2 Lantern shortcut](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9n6zIy-K3wo/mqdefault.jpg)