Dustforce Any% All Beginner Route

"beginner" any% all route

things to note/general reminders:

- routes can be slightly modified depending on what you feel comfortable with.  eventually, training wheels will have to come off, but that won't be a huge concern until you gun for better times.  this mostly aims to just be a simple route to execute that still is moderately fast.
- parenthesis will signify suggested characters (in order) or other notes.  remember these might not be optimal, just what I think would be best for a beginner to learn.
- remember to reset all nexuses (including difficults!) before doing a run... make sure red key doors are open, thats a really shitty way to lose a run lol.  make it a habit to check before you do attempts for the day.
- timer starts at the "up" input to enter beginner tutorial, and ends when the IL timer stops in yotta.
- practice your menuing!  try to learn menuing using escape, as it saves ~6 frames over restart menuing EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU EXIT A LEVEL.  you can easily lose 20 seconds in a run just from poor menuing, so try to get the muscle memory early.
- remember if you ever significantly mess up nexus movement, you can move back a nexus in the menus to reset yourself at the last door you entered.

the route itself:

TUTORIALS:
Beginner (Man)
Combat (Man; superfarm route is hard if you dont exactly understand it, watch snow's run for a fast version of old strats)
Advanced (Man)
Enter main nexus

FOREST:
Downhill (Man/Girl)
Shaded Grove (Worth)
Firefly Forest (Worth/Man; do after Dahlia if you can't get the movement from Shaded Grove down)
Valley (Man/Girl)
Dahlia (Girl/Worth; worth is easier in my opinion but is like a second or so slower.  i'd recommend getting comfortable with girl)
Tunnels (Man/Girl)
Ancient Garden (Kid/Man; kid movement saves a few seconds assuming mostly optimal movement, so try to learn it.  remember the jump is significantly easier if you buffer it from an airdash + downdash)
Night Temple (Worth)
Summit (Man/Worth; worth summit was 1000x more consistent for both sleuth and i, certainly recommend at least trying it out)
Ascent (Worth)
Grass Cave (Kid/Girl)
Wild Den (Girl/Man/Worth; Worth saves about a second in movement up to ruins, but his strats tend to be a bit more difficult on Wild Den.  this is kinda a level you can do whatever works and get away with it lol)
Ruins (Worth/Man)
Overgrown Temple (Man; do not play girl on this map unless you like it better for some reason and practiced it, her lights will RUIN you)
Fields (Girl)
Dusk Run (Man/Girl)
Go left to mansion

MANSION:
Atrium (worth)
Secret Passage (Worth)
Alcoves (Worth)
Caverns (Man/Worth; really recommend going through strats, watch snow's run for a clean replay, over top is quite a fair bit harder if you don't understand the geometry of the weird ass tiles up there)
Cliffside Caves (Worth; while man is HELLA fast on this map, worth isnt bad (like 2 seconds slower) and feels a bit easier, and nexus movement requires him)
Observatory (Worth; do a walljump off the wall above cliffside to get you up to the slope next to observatory, then boost over to the right.  if you're scared and want camera to follow you, slopejump off the right part of the slope and go up and to the left)
Ramparts (Worth; movement from observatory can be a bit tough, but if you mess it up and hit the floor just do the walljump next to cliffside back up)
Parapets (Kid/Worth; both are similar in time and are largely personal preference)
Tower (Worth)
Store Room (Worth/Girl; worth makes nexus movement easy, but girl is faster.  watch really old worth replays for an idea of run safe strats)
Moon Temple (Worth/Man; worth is SIGNIFICANTLY easier for this map.  remember you need to hit the top checkpoint for the deathwarp to work)
Knight Hall (Man)
Archive (Man)
Mezzanine (Worth/Man)
Library (Worth)
Courtyard (Worth)
go left to city

CITY
Vacant Lot (Worth)
Park (Man/Girl)
Landfill (Man/Girl; kid strats save just over a second, DO NOT BOTHER WITH THEM WHILE LEARNING THE CATEGORY)
Development (Worth)
Construction (Man/Girl)
Apartments (Girl)
Carpark (Worth/Man/Girl)
Warehouse (Worth/Man)
Forgotten Tunnel (Worth)
Basement (Man/Worth)
Scaffolding (Man)
Rooftops (literally any character is fast)
Clocktower (Kid/Worth)
Concrete Temple (Worth; during nexus movement to here, if you accidentally get on the outside wall without an aircharge you can hold up to buffer a ceiling run on the sloped wall, putting you safely inside to continue the climb up)
Alleyway (Worth)
Hideout (Man/Worth; personal preference, if you find worth better then consider moving basement and forgotten to after hideout, as it saves around a second and negates the time lost moving to lab)
drop down the slope to lab

LAB
Control (Worth/Man)
Vats (Man/Girl)
Ferrofluid (Man)
Server Room (Girl)
Titan (Man/Girl)
Security (Worth/Man; security boost is hard, if you aren't getting it down consider man)
Research (Worth/Man)
Satellite Debris (Worth; DO NOT TRY FOR THE CEILING RUN STRATS FROM THE STARTING PLATFORM, jump from the ledge higher and to the left)
Wiring (Worth)
Backup Shift (Worth)
Containment (Worth; do yourself a favor and learn actual concrete strats for this, don't be that runner that has 30 second containments because they refuse to load up the level for 30+ minutes to learn a gameplan)
Power Room (Worth; man strats are 10x harder for about a second of gain, watch old any% worth replays)
Core Temple (Man/Girl; remember to skip access for now, as it's slightly easier to line up the movement to abyss and you play worth who has an easier time with movement)
Access (Worth/Man; worth highly recommended to make abyss movement much easier)
Abyss (Kid/Man)
Dome (Man)
Exit to main nexus, begin moving to difficults

DIFFICULTS:
Difficults routes are VERY flexible.  try to have a somewhat linear path, but you can basically start from either side and work your way up.
Kilo (Worth)
Giga (Kid/Worth, 100% personal preference)
Peta (Worth)
Zetta (Man)
Mega (Worth)
Tera (Girl; LEARN THE SETUP, which i explain here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dustforce/comments/5r9d3o/whats_the_setup_for_tera_drop/dd5kd8e/
 )
Exa (Worth)
YOTTA (Worth; end timer when IL timer stops)

as far as goal times for this route goes, it's hard to say since nexus movement isn't going to make a huge impact on your final time in the early stages.  i've gotten low 38s using this exact route, but i'd say a good goal before straying away and doing further research would be a 41 or so.

direct any questions or whatever to me, fishmcmuffins.  you can find me on the dustforce discord at probably any time of day