It's definitely worth more investigation. It also helps with stage destruction. Normally, when you personally attack a fan leech or the stage, you get hit with something that close to kills you. That's one of the deterrents of a direct attack and forces you to use your troops. However you are still able to use Face Melter and, in this case, Bring it on Home to further damage a stage or an opponent's tower. One of those happy accidents I found while looking for shortcuts.  The potential problem is the 4-5 minute cool down afterward. I could MAYBE do it twice in Black Tears provided I have enough time to pull off the solo both times. I'll give it a try, anything that can shave time.

Cool stuff. I've been able to cut down my special attacks to just Roman Candle than that plus one or two more moves. I've also found that if you drive off the cliff in the right spot after B.i.o.H. will get you quite close to the Black Tears, no need for "Used warps." I can probably cut down the Fire Tribute grabbing because some is always left over, but a lot of the stuff is gained on the way and wastes little to no time. I'll toy around with that.

good luck with your run!

Well I've managed to get my capture card to record and I have 2 videos of me speedrunning some missions.

Here's Pilgrimage of Screams:


And Kill Master's Mercy:


I've added annotations to the videos to show some commentary.

One problem I've encountered is that these recordings took up an enormous amount of space on my computer. They're multiple gigabytes each, and it's only 5 minutes of a potentially hour long speedrun, not even counting inevitable failed attempts. Is there any way to get around this without the quality suffering? I don't want all my memory on my computer taken up by this.

Due to the videos' massive size, these 2 videos took an eternity to upload. 5 minutes of video literally took several hours to upload on Youtube.

WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT SPRINTING?

Ahem, anyway, I finally got my capture device up and running. I'll try and get a submittable run at the end of the week.

A quick question: How much damage does the Flaming axe do in relation to Bloodlust?

Well, I'm gonna start learning to game soon. Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain :3

I look forward to your progress, I hope any information I gave in my posts was helpful! If you do submit a run to SDA, I might be interested in verifying it.

Have you guys tried finding OOB stuff? Might be useful in skipping some of the battles.

I found that for the pleasure tower stage battle you can double team with Lars to sneak around the impalers and destroy the gate really quickly, I can pretty easily win before the headsplitter journal comes up. For the last mission I was thinking the fastest way would be to rush roadies for the heads, although I am not 100% on that. The only stage battle I am not fully comfortable with is the defense against the drowning doom, I tend to stick to razor girls until the second last wave where I get roadies and bouncers for the vehicles, help on that one would be appreciated.

Is someone still interested in running this? Because I found some cool stuff.

First, take a look at this.



I'll cover things that can't be simply deducted from the video.

First, general notes:

-On PC, turn on the hi-fi simulator. It simulates 60fps or something. In speedrun, it allows skipping cutscenes faster. Two times faster.
-Also on PC, remap pause key. Both cancel and pause are mapped to ESC. If you remap pause key, you can skip tutorial screens without entering pause menu.
-There are three types of cutscenes: "soft", "hard", and prerendered. The soft cutscenes are when camera just pans off of Eddie. You can do some maneuvers offscreen. On the way to the Killmaster: "Oh s*** they've been practicing" is soft (game allows you to run forward into frame) and "Hey leave that guy alone" is hard. When you interact with tab slab it's also soft cutscene. Some of you might have figured it out that you can play "summon deuce" immediately after using a slab.

-You can use 3 Pyros, 3 Shakers, 12 Shockers or combination of these before your guitar overheats.
-Electrocution in this game deals damage overtime. You should have noticed by now. If your axe deals 1dmg, shocker deals 0.5dmg on impact and 1.5dmg overtime. One shocker deals almost 2dmg and 5 shockers deal 4dmg. What that means is that the most effective way of using shocker is hitting first enemy with first shocker, second one with second shocker etc. Locking on an enemy and using prev/next lock on comes in handy. I call it "sweep".
-Solo canceling. If you cancel a solo while playing it, nothing happens. But when you cancel it right after it takes effect, rest of animation is skipped and you gain a second for additional maneuvers. Also it allows to skip that zoom on their faces after playing facemelter (which is also soft cutscene btw). In speedrun you can use it mainly after facemelter and battlecry, but many solos can be cancelled like this (including other factions' solos during multiplayer).
-Another way to get rid of that zoom on their faces is turning off the violence when game asks you during intro.
-You can cancel some animations by quickly tapping "play solo" key. In the video it's used to stop immediately when sprinting (in lair of Metal Queen pay attention before little spiders).
-Catapult. When driving Deuce, you can get catapulted forward while getting out. To do this, aim a little to the left or right, keep pressing "forward" and jump off. Works only on flat surfaces.
-You can mash orders to skip conversations during missions. More of them than the one during Pilgrimage of Screams
-You can damage buildings with double teams and solos.
-The way I take sharp turns is releasing "Forward", tapping handbrake and holding "Left" or "Right"
-Drivind on concrete is more stable and vehicle won't randomly turn when you activate turbo.
-Deuce's turbo lasts for ~6 seconds and has ~3 seconds cooldown without upgrades.
-There are 3 reasons for you not to use turbo: you are on cooldown, you have lost control over vehicle or you will bump into something when you turbo.
-If you reverse a vehicle, turbo boosts you backwards.
-You can release "Forward" to cancel a turbo and maneuver safely.
-If you are hurt during stage battles, the only way for you to contribute to a fight is by battlecry or double team with a razor girl. Or going out and in again but you have to know when they won't go after you again.
-Your strategic decisions during stage battles will meet same strategic responses from AI (your same build will meet their same build). At least on Brutal and battle's early phase.
-The row of spotlights hanging on a stage is it's health bar.


Now some location specific tips:
TUTORIAL LEVEL
-Before nun there are two ways of advancing - using shaker 3 times or slaying druids until the song ends.
-That nun rarely stands there for so long. Usually she shouts. In this case I hit her 4 times, roll left to dodge the shout, hit her 4 times, roll backwards, play 5 shockers and run to the chariot while she dies.

HEADBANGER MINES
-If you kill the hairbangers before they "wake up", you will soft lock the game and will have to reload checkpoint.
-When the riot starts, You should send them forward as soon as first skirmish is over (before "Is that all you got Mittens?"). It's something I didn't do here. While you are doing it, it's possible to place attack marker right where Eddie will stand in cutscene. Happened to me once.
-If you send them forward correctly, you usually only have time to play 5 shockers. Take too long and you won't be at the gate in time for spawnkill.
-The spawnkill on the wave with Bouncer. Sometimes your buddies fight so good that you won't make it there in time. In this case at least don't let them touch the gyre support. If they touch it, your headbangers will come to aid instead of waiting for their final wave.
-Mittens quick kill. I still don't understand how it works, but it's consistent. It goes like this: Bait, shocker (optional, just to keep him in place), shaker, wait for coal, axe + shaker, wait for sparks, shaker, axe until victory. If not, just alternate axe and shaker.

BACK AT BLADEHENGE
-You are meant to get off the Deuce and walk in to Bladehenge to trigger the cutscene. It is possible to fit the Deuce perfectly between the tusks, but you no longer have to.

KILLMASTER'S MOUNTIAN
About that OOB, it's here and allows you to leave the mountain in straight line. Saves many seconds, but it's hard. For me at least. In the movie this is the way how to go for it (especially the attempt after Road Racin'). Starting position doesn't matter. Important is the angle (aim somewhere around that tree), velocity, place where you hit the barrier and moment of activating turbo (try turboing when deuce doesn't touch ground or when you see sparks). Also when you do it right, land at the legit entrance to the mountain since there are invisible walls everywhere around.

LAIR OF THE METAL QUEEN
-It's possible to get to the queen without stopping.
-It's possible to completely dodge the first swarm of small spiders. Notice the hole in their formation.
-It's possible to make the queen give you desired pattern every time. In the movie is a mistake though. You shouldn't start moving until she does. Watch for the bumps in the ground to find magic spots.
-You will usually be able to land 19 hits (4*4 + 3). That 20th hit is not beneficial and is just a display of your mashing skill.
-Second wave of spiders. More of them arrives when you kill two of them. If you kill all at once, you will soft lock the game.

ROAD RACIN'
-I release "Forward" to make safe landing on the concrete.
-This thunderhog's turbo lasts for 3 seconds and has no cooldown. Just as regular thunderhog during stage battles.
-This part can be done when counter says 43 seconds remaining.
-If you ever hit the sign and fall off the bike at the very end, just run. Winning condition is Eddie touching a trigger.

RAZORFIRE RODEO
-Almost perfect. Notice when I accelerate and brake to manipulate biker pigs.

BATTLE OF BLADEHENGE
-During mission there are always two waves spawned. The current one charges at you while the next one gets in position. They will take different routes depending on how fast you disposed of the current wave.
-You can play Battlecry before the enemy spawns. I forgot about that.
-If you take too long to take down initial wave, the next wave (4 groupies and bouncer) will go next to the bound serpent instead. In this case you should play "summon deuce" during soft cutscene after taking out a bouncer drive to the next wave (where Lionwhite appears) to get their attention. After then you can deal with Lionwhite and then wave.
-Lionwhite can escape immediately or be a jerk and stay there forever (in the movie, yes - that IS his facemelter). Even jerkier than in the video.
-During Lionwhite's wave, hairbangers, bouncer and Lars are usally all bunched up. In this case Lars's DT would hit them all at once
-Your thunderhod should be destroyed by now. It's part of a plan.
-The next wave cannot meet your army or else they will scatter and you won't hit them all with facemelter. In the movie Lionwhite's wave took longer than usual so this wave is also closer to the stage than usual. Also if you take too long on this one, you will kill next wave "too quickly" and in result final wave doesn't go through the middle, but through the right side and you have to wait.
-When I drive in circles around them with disgorger (I call it "campfire"), the bouncer focuses on you as long as you are in the deuce. If you get off, he'll go after a thunderhog if it's around.
-This mission can be done before song's solo comes in. And with no casualties on your side, except for strategical thunderhog sacrifices.
-While every other primary mission gives 30 fire tributes, this one for some reason gives only 25. If the bound serpent in the middle is taken, that would be 30.

MACHINE GUNN EDDIE
There are two more fire tributes that could be taken. After the third one you should stick to the left and drive on the log ramp near the spider lair. Also there is second one at the Killmaster's, but this one is dangerous and may lead to destroying the bus, especially on Brutal. If you are going for this one, you should have taken the other one after Metal Queen lair.

BATTLE OF BATTERSMITH
-Here is that glitch. If you use that tab slab immediately after landing, the recruit menu won't draw, but you still can recruit. You just recruit blindly and hope that you didn't build 5 thunderhogs... To avoid that glitch, land, wait for screen to fade to black and then use tab slab.
-There is a fourth bound serpent here. Next to the motorforge.
-I don't think you can go faster than this. Maybe if I played battlecry instead of facemelter and let the groupies die to Lars's DT.

PILGRIMAGE OF SCREAMS
-The winning condition in both ways is when a roadie touches trigger.
There is a bound serpent. Grabbing it makes you stop and allows your army to catch up. In result the first skirmish is safer since the enemy focuses on your buddies.

CLEAVE OF THE IMPALER
-It's possible to maniputale the roadies to have all 3 of them attacking. Can't figure out consistent way.
-In the last skirmish, if you play facemelter too early, you will soft lock the game.
-I once soft locked the game by mashing orders. Dunno what happened.

LIONWHITE'S HOUSE
-The rally flag and recruiting razor girls are for Lionwhite so that when he regenerates he will go defend his merch booth instead of going after us.
-It's possible to play a facemelter for Lionwhite.

DOOM'S DAWN
-If you don't have Shredders, you shouldn't intercept the second wave with facemelter. Instead, turn your face 90 degrees to them and give an order to hold position (your army will position themselves correctly and you will hit all the grave diggers with one facemelter), sneak past them, build a merch booth ant then attend to the enemy.
-Letting them destroy the deuce is part of a plan. When you play "summon deuce" and the deuce is already on the field, it won't get repaired.
-If you jump on the thunderhog before the first ratgut wave is destroyed, you can stun the next wave earlier, when they are more bunched up.
-During last river wave, I don't get beaten up like that. You should aim and fire with facemelter and save the battlecry for the bouncers (play it when you get a warning that someone is attacking a merch booth).
-Those ratguts can be glitched. If you run them over when they lean for their rats, they will stuck in the falling to the ground animation. This puts them out of a fight for maybe half a minute. You can still kill them when this occurs.
-Two bouncers are risky but they do the job.
-This mission can be done in under 5 minutes.

METAL BEAST SWAMP ESCORT
-There is a skip here. If you are fast and destroy the barricade before "Eddie, we have a blockage", the bus won't stop at all. Using a facemelter gives you enough time to get there quickly. In the video i noticed leftovers and panicked. Also, if you get too far ahead, mission gets canceled. Listen to a moment in conversation where Killmaster interrupts with "How much futher my a** is getting soaked". If Rima only says "I'm" from "I'm just kidding <laugh>", you are safe. If she says anything more uninterrupted, you should stop for a second. Just try it out and cancel the mission on your own and you'll see. Other reason for cancelling mission is that you left some diggers alive and bus stopped.
-The skip can be achieved without getting off the beast. It's harder though.
-Either way you should be on the move by the time the drums come in in the song.
-Constantly breathing fire doesn't increase your DPS. At least I think so. Just lick them with fire and they will die on their own. Except for panthers, which take two licks. Vehicles can''t be licked.

DRY ICE MINES/QUARRY
-It usually doesn't take that long.
-It can be done sub 3 minutes.
-Wait with first facemelter until the bride starts descending.
-For solo canceling, wait for the stage to hit you back before you cancel. Also if you cancel facemelter and immediately play battlecry, you will still get that zoom on their faces
-After your army arrives at her stage, try out different tactics, like focusing brides, recruiting a thunderhog, recruiting hedbangers instead of razorgirls, using Lita's DT more on diggers than on stage.

RACING THE REAPER
-This time winning contition is when both you and bus hit the trigger.
-The battle part can be done with no casualties. Rarely.

SEA OF BLACK TEARS
-The way of getting merch booths in the video is faster than killing all four fan leeches on your own.
-The way this mission works. Before you destroy the towers, they spawn waves. Next wave spawns after fixed amount of time after previous wave gets destroyed. Composition of wave depends on your tech level:
-If you are fully tier 1 - diggers only
-If you are upgrading to tier 2 - diggers, frightwigs and brides.
-If you are fully tier 2 - there are ratguts
-If you are tier 3 and above - ratguts and reapers.
At least i think it is that way.
By delaying first upgrade you manipulate composition of the wave.
-If you have played first fan tribute, looked at the ramp an the diggers already passed it, you are too slow and will have to attend to them before playing second fan tribute.
-If for some reason they went after your merch booth, aim facemelter, leave leftovers, upgrade right away, take the final geyser and attend to leftovers. But this time leave a survivor until Rock Crusher arrives This will keep new waves from spawning.
-Sometimes you will get a warning thar a Rock Crusher is attacked. This means that it shot at the bride you left and probably killed her. Brace yourself for additional wave with reapers. If you ever see that additional wave, give order to move (beacon propably is at the futher right geyser, just have your army retreat) and reverse until Crusher's DT is ready to fire. If they aggro and wreck your army, recruit more army (maybe headsplitters) and _wait_ for them to arrive. Then destroy final tower.
-Bouncers to Headbangers ratio. Bouncers go after vehicles, but headbangers go after the Tree Back. Up to you.
-After towers are destroyed, no more waves are spawned and enemy is triggered into stage battle mode. They will recruit units, take geysers and stuff.
-I took unnecessary safety measures. Basically, you keep your Crusher alive and you ain't going nowhere until Tree Back is down. But after that, you can risk and send everything after their stage.
-That grider damages stage. If everything goes right, you won't have time to use second Bladehenge Assault on stage. Just keep driving into the stage until victory.
-If the Crusher ever gets destroyed, play battecry and use bouncer's or headsplitter's DT. You don't have time for second crusher.
-You can try out some fancy stuff and hit the tree back and it's escort with eye of sorrow or heat seeker while waiting for the crusher.

ABOMINATION OVERDRIVE
-It doesn't take as long. The first head is usually down shortly after the skull raker is dead (sometimes earlier, have to slay him during soft cutscene). Second head usually dies after seventh shot.
-They destroyed first thunderhog. Sometimes this happen. That's why you recruit a second one.
-Order of heads matters. Whichever you attack first, they summon a skull raker there. At the second one you attack they summon a hate cage. If you reversed attacking order, they would summon a hate cage on top of your headbangers (the spot where skull raker is in the video) and it would incinerate them.
-At the second head, if your army is down and head is not dead, use a desperate facemelter on it. It worked for me once.
-There is a safe strategy including taking one fan leech, rushing initial infantry to the first head and building a headsplitter for the second one.
-If you drive your deuce to the one head's eye, other one gets fully healed.

DUEL WITH DOVICULOUS
-Strategy in the movie makes sense only if you have Shredders.
-There is a flaw in my strategy. I had to wait for the cooldown. It means that there is only maximum amount of time to be saved, especially if you kill stuff quickly. Alternate strategy would include getting different strings and playing facemelter only once, for Doviculous and nuns. On the other hand this strategy is safe and consistent as long as you deal with the druids and destroy the chains before he summons second batch.
-Shocker deals more damage per overheat and Pyro deals more damage per second.
-Single chain has 2hp.

There are few differences for the "no dlc" route and Doom's Dawn is entirely different then. Just ask if you are interested.

And now for the customizable part of the run:
FIRE TRIBUTES AND MOTOR FORGES
Three questions: How many visits, when to visit and what to buy? Motor forge strategy in the movie is personal preference, might be the best but I didn't really research it. Another plan for the DLC category I came up with would be going to the forge only once after the rodeo and buying turbo 1, performance 1, razor edge, super shakers, machine gunn and disgorger. Cost is 155 FT (130 if you skip performance 1) while from missions you would get 120, which means you would get all 3 available plug jumps (at Killmaster's, from Killmaster's to Bladehenge and from Bladehenge to Razor fields) and 5 tributes more (preferably a serpent at the razor fields or random encounter, more on that below).

After razorfire rodeo is the earliest moment when you can visit motorforge and buy deuce weapons. If you are going to do a one visit run, the best forge is somewhere else. When you drive from Razor Fields to Bladehenge, turn left to face Mount Rockmore. While leaving this forge, just hold "Forward" and use turbo to trigger cutscene. The same forge can be used after Battle for Bladehenge, since it seems to be closer to player than the other one in the middle of the field. Didn't check it. Also, it can be reused before second escort mission, when Lita runs to the light before you can talk to her you can jump in the Deuce which is there next to you.

Second visit takes 30 seconds (the cutscenes alone and time to play relic raiser) plus time you take for menu exploration, even if you skip leaving the forge sequence. If you are planning the second visit, you can delay some of the purchases to skip farming for fire tributes. In the movie i wait with fire chord until the second visit because I don't have time to farm and there are no way to utilize it between visits (those bouncers aren't worth it). Considerable places for second visit are at Battersmith(like in the movie) and after Doom's Dawn(either the spot in Death's Clutch or the one near Mount Rockmore).

There shouldn't be third visit, but if you insist...

FIRE TRIBURES
You should cut getting them to a minimum. Note that stopping for a landmark, mouth of metal or legend and getting back in the car takes ~10 seconds. Do you save these seconds somewhere else? Almost all fire tributes that don't take much time are shown in the movie. There is one more on the way from Bladehenge to Razor fields, which I skipped. Others are mentioned above in Machine Gunn Section. If you ever miss a plug jump and don't have enough, either skip buying something or take a nearby viewer/legend/mouth.

There is also another source of tributes - random encounters. While exploring the world if you notice your dudes fighting enemy forces (not animals), you can engage and get 15 FT if you help them win. By engaging i mean getting out of Deuce, playing few shockers on that bouncer and moving on. Or running him over and hoping that it was the last hit. I found weird and consistent encounter. I erased my saves on 3 separate occasions and every time, on the way from Bladehenge to Killmaster's, around a motor forge, I've encountered two bouncers surrounded by headbangers. And two of them means 30 FT. After razorfire rodeo there are pretty much no more encounters.

From primary missions you get 30 fire tributes. I'll write how much FT you have from primary missions at diffrent points in the game.
-After Razorfire rodeo you have 120
-After Battle for Bladehenge you have 150 (but only if you take that serpent in the middle)
-After Screaming Wall you have 240
-After Doom's Dawn you have 360

SHOPPING

Here are the things that require comment:

AXES
RAZOR EDGE(40) - Available at the first visit. Personal favourite. It allows you to kill anything in at least one hit less (diggers from 8 to 7 hits, bride from 12 to 10 hits for example) If you take it, you should focus on high health targets during battles (mostly ratguts and frightwigs).
ETERNAL FIRE(40) - Available at the first visit. Works a little similar to Razor's Edge. The difference is that if you hit a digger 7 times, the afterburn deals the 8th hit. Same for bride, but you hit her 10 times and afterburn deals the rest. The issue is that they don't die quicker than from Razor's Edge. Also bonus doesn't apply to vehicles. But you still can hit a dude 7 times and do something else while he dies to fire.
CHAIN LIGHTING(120) - Available after Battle for Bladehenge. It allows to hit multiple enemies. It deals normal damage to primary target and portion of damage to the others. If you do an unstoppable axe attack, everyone gets knocked away. Also it stunlocks multiple enemies. I didn't notice if the electrocution from it does anything. Useful during duel with Doviculous and during stage battles to protect your girls, thunderhogs and busy headbangers from diggers. Worth considering if you ask me.
BLOODLUST(120) - Available after Battle for Bladehenge. I tried it. I killed 3 diggers and everyone took 8 hits to kill. If you ask me, this axe is not benefitial at all. Or it takes too many kills before becoming useful during stage battles. Maybe someone else can look into it.

GUITAR STRINGS
LOVE GIVER(0) - Dude... you are losing precious seconds by selecting them in the menu. Don't do it unless you really want those quotes or you have spectators to impress.
BRAWLERS(25) - Theoretically they buff guitar moves in combo, which would be pretty much what you buy in Special Moves section. If single player had more avatar combats, benefit from brawlers would be considerable. If you find a way to save time with these, go for it.
SUPER SHAKERS(25) - Available at the first visit. They are pretty useful if you remember to use them. They increase shaker's damage from "almost 2" do "definitely over 2" and range to the same as facemelter. Also they increase knockback so that the dudes get knocked even further from you, which is a downside. Use them during duel with Doviculous or during stage battles to protect your girls, thunderhogs and busy headbangers from melee combatants.
DESTROYERS(75) - Available before Screaming Wall mission. Same as brawlers.
SHREDDERS(75) - Availble before Screaming Wall mission. Facemelter's cooldown reduced by ~10 seconds and you can play next battlecry right as previous one wears off. They allowed me to save 30 seconds on Doom's Dawn alone, but during "no dlc" route. In the video there are 2 places where shredders come in - Doom's Dawn when they almost kill me and during duel with Doviculous.
HIGH VOLTAGE(225) - Available before swamp escort. Thought I would mention, since these are even more imba than Disgorger. With these shocker deals maybe 2dmg on impact. To get these you would drive from Zaulia temple, turn right behind Lita an then a little to the left. You would have to sacrifice over a minute of driving and there isn't many places to utilize them.

SPECIAL MOVES

SHOCK BOMB(30) - Available at the first visit. It doesn't help ME kill stuff faster since I'm using my sweep and focusing on heavier targets. If it helps YOU kill stuff faster, go for it.
FIRE CHORD(60) - Personal favourite. It deals 3dmg overtime, but slowly. Most effective on high health targets, but it can be used on pretty much everyone. You can do a fire chord on someone, hit them with an axe enough times and do something else while they die to flames.
POWER SLIDE(15) - Available at the first visit. I find it iritating. Don't know how the game deals with pads, but it eats keyboard and mouse inputs. If you do two inputs at the same frame, one gets eaten. The result is Eddie power slides instead of sprinting. Wery annoying. Maybe someone else can put it to work.
GRABBER(30) - Available at the first visit. The plan was to grab the brides while they run away from you during Doom's Dawn. Can be used to get them in range of your axe. I prefer flying to them. Just try it out and maybe include it in your route.
ROMAN CANDLE (60) - Available after Machine Gunn Eddie. Don't know how it works. It supposed to float enemies. Anyways it seems to do area damage. If it helps you kill stuff faster, go for it.
ROCK KICK (15) - Available after Machine Gunn Eddie. If you ask me, its usefulness is limited to avatar combat when they block too much.

DEUCE
TURBO 1(20) - Available at the first visit. Decreases turbo cooldown from 3 to 2.5 seconds. Also increases top speed while turbo. Doesn't influence driving without turbo. It saves many seconds throughout all the driving sections, maybe even over a minute (During research, the bridge where you play a relic raiser took 19.4 seconds with no upgrades and 18.2 with turbo 1). Just remember - even this won't help if you are a terrible driver.
TURBO 2(40) - Available before March of Impalement. Also before March of Impalement is the only reasonable place where you can get them and save time (the same bridge took 17.1 seconds). They give ability to save 10+ seconds during long driving section - from Lionwhite's house up to return to Bladehenge. After that it becomes obsolete (unless you want to try out high voltage). They work as Turbo 1 but cooldown is now ~2 seconds. With Turbo 2, performance upgrades become unnoticeable and can be skipped entirely (with performance 1 it also took 17.1).
PERFORMANCE 1(25) - Available at the first visit. Increases top speed while driving without turbo. Doesn't increase top speed while on turbo. This purchase shouldn't be prioritized, since it doesn't mean as much as turbo (8.1 seconds with turbo 1 and performance 1).
PERFORMANCE 2(50) - Available before March of Impalement - Don't buy. Too expensive and with Turbo 2 definitely not worth it.
MACHINE GUNN(45) - Available at the first visit. Pretty much mandatory. If I will ever see Machine Gunn Eddie mission on brutal without using machine gunn...
EYE OF SORROW(0) - Available before March of Impalement. This thins is imba. For escort missions is surprisingly worse than machine gunn, but better elsewhere. If you are not using it in stage battles, don't buy them, because it takes second to select them in the menu.
HEAT SEEKER/BOLT THROWER(180) - Available after Doom's Dawn. It's use was rather limited to Dry Ice Mines as a safety measure, but I already found a safe way to do it, so why bother?
DISGORGER(0) Available at the first visit. This thing is O.P. Take it. Unless someone finds faster strategies without disgorger, in which case it would be seconds wasted in menu exploration.
SIDEBURNERS(40) - Available at the first visit. Works like disgorger, but deals less damage and has less range. Still very effective againist basic melee combatants if you do a perfect campfire.

Last thing - difficulty. The only things affected by difficulty I've noticed are:
-AI avatars during stage battles (their macro management, decision making and quality of combat)
-During Sea of Black Tears on brutal, after the two towers are down, Ophelia recruits ratguts, probably to counter my infantry.
-Squealer's speed.
-Machine Gunn Eddie part gets more dangerous

Now that you know how to deal with problematic things, there is no reason to run this game on anything easier than brutal. Also, is it Casual Legend or Normal Legend?

During Dry Ice Mines on easier difficulties, since Opheilia doesn't spend her fans well, she has enough to _repair_ the stage and delay you from progress. I've checked it and despite that it's faster on casual, by few seconds (up to 20 seconds maybe? don't remember)

And there you go. With less mistakes and better fortune, sub 1:25 is granted and sub 1:20 is considerable. Realtime of course.

Woah, renewed interest! I was coming post here and ask if anyone had links to the old videos that aren't showing up here anymore that Wheels apparently posted, and there's a new recording! Woo.

I'd routed this on my own but only got to about 3:30, and I couldn't watch the missing videos from Wheels so I didn't know how times were so quick (I was skipping cutscenes, so it's not that.) (I still don't know, actually, I haven't watched Boulder's video yet)

Anyway, I have more to say once I watch your run, boulder. Yay, interest!

Great stuff I'm seeing here! I've actually considered running this myself, but it seems like we'd have to make this two separate categories for PS3 and PC, no?

Yep. This game pretty much can be divided into two main categories - PC and Console. Main reasons for this are DLC and Hi-fi simulator (mentioned above; it allows to skip cutscenes faster). Running this game on PC without DLC might be third category, since this one involves much more risk and IMO is funnier. Run on console with DLC would be the fourth main category, but I think it' too rare to happen (someone would have to have the game with DLC and be into speedrunning). Difficulties might be subcategories, but you already know what I think about it.

Not having dlc weapons changes the route a little. Disgorger should be replaced with side burners, since you still can incinerate hairbangers and grave diggers quicker than by axe and guitar. With side burners mostly route is the same, except for shopping list and two missions:

BATTLE FOR BLADEHENGE:
The second last wave. Driving around freely with side burners is not as effective as with disgorger, so you do a perfect campfire - drive as slow as possible (tap "forward" 2-3 times per second) and keep turning right or left. Melee dudes will get trapped, but groupies won't get it. With this campfire catch some of the groupies. They won't be stuck inside like bangers, but they'll at least get damaged. Get out of the car when the bouncer gets surrounded by headbangers (so that he won't go after the thunderhog), kill him and team up with Lars to get the groupies. Final wave stays the same.

Btw I've discovered alternate ending to this mission. If you replaced the sacrificed thunderhog with bangers/girls, you would drive to the final wave in the deuce and after facemelter use campfire on the remainders (both the disgorger and side burner route). If you want to try it out, aim with facemelter for the groupies, not entire group. Risk involves having the deuce destroyed and (almost) being killed. Both paths can give satisfying time.

DOOM'S DAWN
When dlc weapons are unavailable, you have to have shredders for this route. In the beginning you should buy second thunderhog. Also some combatants. There are couple possibilities, but i usually go with bangers, girls x2 and mentioned thunderhog. Another plan involves recruiting a hog, upgrading stage and recruiting a headsplitter. It would be done by the time the ratguts appear.

Anyway, the beginning is the same - facemelter, recruit a hog [and maybe combatands, like I do], kill bride, take geysers, set up a car and a flag, intercept second wave, take the third geyser, attend to the brides, get in the car and do a campfire. This time get out of the vehicle when the diggers are almost wiped out, slay the frightwig and brides. If you went for the headsplitter, it should be coming out of the stage now. Remember to have it follow you since the flag is placed somewhere. Since you have two thunderhogs, you can use individual orders to have one stay there (by the river). I usually don't do it, but it is a possibility in this plan.

Now it's the time for the first ratgut wave. Like previously, you drive to them in a deuce, fire machine gunn to aggro as many of the diggers as possible, and you stop next to the ratguts. Lick them with the flames of side burners, get out of the deuce, play a facemelter, finish off the ratguts ASAP, and improvise. The facemelter will also kill all the diggers you poked with machine gunn. This part has hazards:
-the frightwig is attacking you and your car
-the ratguts can kill you even if you are in the car
To do this part safely, time your getting out of the car. Wait for one/two of them to puke rats at your car. You get out now and the rats will attack the car, not you. You might have to wait a second or two, so remember to keep the burners turned on. After the facemelter the ratguts are almost dead, so you might want to use your axe/guitar on them. If the frightwig severely damaged you and the ratguts are alive, get in the car and retreat while shooting with machine gunn (remember that if you reverse, turbo boosts you backwards).
When the ratguts are finally dead and you are alive, improvise. You might want to take your time, since your facemelter is not ready for the next wave.

Second ratgut wave stays the same - jump in on a thunderhog, stun them and play a facemelter. Don't rush with finishing off the remainders, since your facemelter is not ready for the next use.

Ratgut river wave (last before finale) requires dexterity. The plan is to use stun notes to keep them in place as your facemelter cools down. If you don't, they will scatter and go after the merch booth. Here is the plan.

Get on the _second_ thunderhog (because the one you used is still on cooldown), dive in an stun the enemy. To buy you time to cool down the facemelter, you can stand in the middle of them before you stun them. When they are stunned, fly away (leaving the hog behind), get the other hog and repeat. If you used individual orders to leave a hog there, firstly use that one.

After the second stun, your facemelter should be available. Use it and then improvise. You might be able to use second facemelter if the battle lasts long. Sometimes, if you are not fast enough, they will get after your merch booth. Look around and see if a bouncer is nearby, and maybe team up with him.

I've never tried using stage's spotlight, but remember that it's an option. One shot from spotlight deals 1 damage and has AoE.

The finale stays the same - spam bouncer's DT, wait until the third merch booth is destroyed, go there, facemelter, return, look for survivors, win. With this route, I've managed to do it in 6 minutes.

About eye of sorrow, yes - it's hard to hit those tick choppers, but you actually have to put effort to lose the second and third escort mission, even on brutal. During the second one, once i did nothing and the bus almost reached the end. Don't remember where exactly, but it got ridiculously far. During the reapers' one, yes - it's more fun to sometimes stop, use disgorger and let them run into it. I lost this one twice - once I failed the battle part and the second time... I've left few reapers alive and they destroyed the bus while I was busy with the battle part.

I've tried the one visit route, but it won't be faster. The Doom's Dawn alone sorted it out, both with and without dlc. Turns out that shredders and turbo 2 are worth the second visit.

Hey guys! I'm a new speedrunner (about 7 months), and I'm looking to add this to my speedrun list after the speedrunning expo marathon in March.

I'm glad there's a community for this, albeit an older group since the game is a little obscure.

May I ask which one is the newest route for XBOX 360 so I can start reading and learning it?