Uploaded August 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The geometry of the beginning penthouse allows you to break inside of it under certain circumstances. Drive towards the indented section containing the glass doors on the front while on a motorcycle (optimally nitro-powered). Lean back a second or two in advance of the collision and bail out a split-second before contact. If you time it right, you'll end up inside the building and be able to wander around.
Of course, there's not much you can do in this position--since you can't climb into vehicles, grab people, or activate the elevator--but this could potentially have a use with other buildings during missions.
The geometry of the beginning penthouse allows you to break inside of it under certain circumstances. Drive towards the indented section containing the glass doors on the front while on a motorcycle (optimally nitro-powered). Lean back a second or two in advance of the collision and bail out a split-second before contact. If you time it right, you'll end up inside the building and be able to wander around.
Of course, there's not much you can do in this position--since you can't climb into vehicles, grab people, or activate the elevator--but this could potentially have a use with other buildings during missions.
![Alter Echo - Transit: Seedlings shortcut
The Dart Jump lets you beat this stage in about 20 seconds by jumping over a large and typically impassable gap. Its somewhat difficult because the Dart Jump has to be high-speed and well-timed, but it easily saves two minutes.
Dart Jump: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UuXH4 esQ ]
On level 20, jump over the energy beams at the beginning of the stage and look out across to the end of the level, which normally must be accessed through a Sync Node. Position yourself as close as possible, using the intersection of the cliff edges as a rough landmark. Then perform the Darting Slash, switch to Stealth form after Nevin throws his sword into the air, and leap in quick succession. If timed correctly, Nevin will fly just far enough to reach the edge of the platform.
While its hard to perform sometimes, the Dart Jump lets you avoid a lot of needless fighting and cutscenes in this area, as well as not having to wait for Stome to do things. It could definitely be pulled off easily enough to be used in a speedrun, and if you fall while trying, you respawn right next to the jump and can try again. Alter Echo - Transit: Seedlings shortcut](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5MVEj4zNXqI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Alter Echo - Dart Jump (speedrun trick)
The Dart Jump allows you to boost quickly through the air while retaining your double jumps, roughly combining the speed of the Morph Pounce with the ability to cross longer horizontal gaps. This trick can be done anywhere after getting the Stealth form and the Darting Slash attack for Sword form.
After buying the Darting Slash attack for Nevin where he throws his sword up into the air and then dashes after it stand on any piece of ground and activate the move. A moment after Nevin tosses his sword, switch to Stealth form and press jump in quick succession. If timed correctly, Nevin will dash off of the ground at high speed, gaining the speed he typically gets when performing the move without falling. Jumping like this gives you an extra jump afterward.
Different timings on activating the morph directly affect the distance you get out of the jump, with the ill-timed jumps still traveling further than the normal jump and the Roll Jump. A perfectly timed jump shoots you forward with incredible speed for a decent amount of time, meaning you can cross some really big gaps.
This is extremely useful and Ive already found several shortcuts using it. It applies in far more situations and far easier than the Morph Pounce, letting Nevin jump about half the distance further than the normal double jump can. The timing is difficult, but far from impossible, and its valuable for even jump expediting some normal jumps.
In terms of what the various tricks are capable of, the Dart Jump is largely for horizontal distances further than the Roll Jump can reach, while also being the first trick Ive found that can easily move upward without the need for a stealth track. This means that you can get roughly the same distance as a Morph Pounce on a level plane, yet still get the normal height from your double jump.
Heres the problem, though: the Dart Jumps initial burst of speed only applies to the first few split-seconds of the trick. The speed wears out unlike the Morph Pounce, where you maintain the Pounces velocity throughout the glitch. This means that the Dart Jump cant cover nearly the same distance as the Morph Pounce. The Dart Jump makes up for this by not falling at such a high rate, so while the Morph Pounce will travel a large distance falling down onto platforms, the Dart Jump can reach platforms at equal height or a little higher.
If done on a stealth track, the Morph Pounce easily beats out the Dart Jump for the fact that it maintains its speed and also gets a double jump. But the Dart Jump can be done anywhere after unlocking the Stealth form and the Darting Slash. Additionally, the Alt Pounce is superior in every way, but has the limitation of geometry and ridiculous frame-perfect timing. The only benefit the Roll Jump has over the Dart Jump is that it can be done as just Nevin, but otherwise its easily worse in every other way.
As a note, you can perform this trick by switching to the Gun form as well, but you cant use the second jump unless you switch back to a form that can.
Morph Pounce: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EqND43sh4M ]
Alt Pounce: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR0GzmTJJH4 ]
Roll Jump: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIFFkxyZmQ ] Alter Echo - Dart Jump (speedrun trick)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5UuXH4--esQ/mqdefault.jpg)


![Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-1 new route (descent)
This is currently the best route Ive come up with for getting to the goal treasure chest of the first map of the Mystic Caverns in as little time as possible. A route like this is only really useful in a full game speedrun.
For the first map, this path uses some tricky glitches. To start with, I make Tobe grab the ledge on the left at the beginning of the map so that he can immediately pop the entry balloon. The area in which I use Floor Door is one of the most difficult places to perform the trick (since you barely have enough blocks to do it).
Floor Door: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Tadpo3S8M ]
Slick Pick: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v 240w0mNyms ]
Additionally, the fastest ascent route uses a screenwrap glitch: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOzYbDCWEe8 ]
This route is much faster for Nana than it is Tobe. It may actually be slightly slower for him than taking the normal route. Additionally, at the beginning of the level, Tobe has to pop his balloon and hang left to grab onto the ledge or land on the higher platform in order to avoid taking damage. Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-1 new route (descent)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6GVoCSHEWkI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-2 new route (descent)
This is currently the best route Ive come up with for getting to the goal treasure chest of the second map of the Mystic Caverns in as little time as possible. A route like this is only really useful in a full game speedrun.
In the video, I show off three alternate places to use the Floor Door trick. The first uses a Slick Pick in addition to the Floor Door, and is probably the slowest path. The last is the fastest and gives a good setup for the lantern trick.
Floor Door: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Tadpo3S8M ]
Slick Pick: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v 240w0mNyms ]
During the ascent, its fastest to use the lantern trick: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n6zIy-K3wo ] Tobes Vertical Adventure - 1-2 new route (descent)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6QG7WtypIHk/mqdefault.jpg)



![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)