Bionic Commando - Beginner's Speedrun Guide

Bionic Commando - Beginner's Speedrun Guide
  Written by feasel  ([email protected])

I made this quick guide to help people who are new to Bionic Commando speedrunning/racing, possibly playing it for the first time.  It is not obvious which levels to do or what items you need to collect and equip.  So going in totally blind will generally lead to failure.  I recommend reading the general introductory stuff before you begin, and then reading the ROUTE section on a level-by-level basis as you progress through the game.  I've tried not to give away any more information than is absolutely necessary in order to avoid getting lost or stuck, so it should be suitable for people doing a blind race.

The route described here is for the "any%" goal.  Beginners may want to race the shorter goal "talk to super joe", which includes the first 5 out of 8 levels from the any% route.


CONTROLS
  B:  Shoot
  A:  Extend/retract bionic arm
  Select:  Pause
  A+B+Start:  Exit the level (instantly returns you to the map)

  While your bionic arm is connected to something, you can press DOWN at any time to disconnect.  It is often useful to do this in mid-swing.


CONTINUES
  These are very important for beginners.  You obtain continues in the truck-encounter levels (i.e. running into a truck on the overworld map).  In each truck encounter there are two continues which are dropped by enemies.  The icon looks like an eagle insignia.  They are dropped when you kill the guys with the riot-shields and bazookas (in type-A trucks) or when you kill the jeeps (in type-B trucks).  IMPORTANT: Keep track of your continues, and if you are running out of them, farm them by running into extra trucks on the overworld map.  You do not want to start over from the beginning, so KEEP TRACK OF HOW MANY CONTINUES YOU HAVE LEFT!


HEALTH
  You start with no health, so one hit will kill you.  But once you've collected enough of the little white bullets that the enemies drop, you'll gain more health.  The first health upgrade happens at 5 bullets, the second happens at 15 bullets, and so on.  When you die, you will restart from the beginning of the level, or the last door you entered.  So if you're worried about dying you should enter every door that you see.


ROUTE
  Do the areas in the following order.  Some areas require you to equip a certain item as you enter it.

Area 15
  Shoot your gun as soon as you walk past the guy dressed in white, which triggers the sirens.  Go in the second door to grab the communicator.  Press A+B+Start to exit the level.

Area 5
  You must enter every door.  Upon entering each door you can immediately exit the room again.  (You don't need to tap into the computers in these rooms, or anywhere else in the game.)

Area 3  (Equip the Rocket Launcher (the 2nd gun))

Area 6
  You don't need to kill the boss, just the computer core.

Area 14  (Equip the Permit (the white card))
  Enter the first door to grab the communicator.  Pres A+B+Start to exit the level.

Area 9

Area 7   (Equip the 3-Way Gun)
  Once you enter the level, shoot the wall with the 3-Way Gun to destroy it.  Then, if you'd prefer not to use the 3-Way Gun for this level, you can press A+B+Start to exit, then re-enter the level and equip the Rocket Launcher (this is the preferred speedrun tactic).  At the end of the level, you don't need to kill the boss, just the computer core.


If the race goal is "talk to super joe", then you are now done.  You'll enter a room and walk over to Super Joe.  Type ".done" when you reach Super Joe and it switches to the green dialog screen.

But if you're doing an "any%" race, then continue:


Area 10

Area 11

Area 12  (Equip the Bullet Proof Vest)
  First elevator shaft:  Take the door on the left (with the two arrows above it).  Go down the sparky shaft and enter the first door.  Kill the computer, climb back up the sparky shaft, and return the elevator shaft.  Take the elevator all the way down, then go right.

  Second elevator shaft:  Take the door on the right (with the two arrows above it).  Go all the way down the sparky shaft and enter the door at the very bottom.  Kill the computer, climb back up the sparky shaft, and return to the elevator shaft.  Take the elevator all the way down.

  Albatross:  Its vulnerable spot is in the upper right.  Play it safe, because a game-over here loses a ton of time.  After killing the albatross you'll reach a checkpoint, so if you game-over past this point you won't have to fight the albatross again.

  Escape:  You can kill the guard by shooting him in the head a lot, but it's easier to bypass him.  Get on the ledge above the guard's head, stand at the right edge of the ledge, then grapple towards the right (to catch on to another ledge to the right).  Press A to pull yourself accross the gap.  You'll either make it all the way accross, or the guard will hit you and boost you to the right (in which case you can grapple upward to reach the ledge).


Type ".done" when you reach the surface and your character says "Is joe still inside?".

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If you have suggestions to improve this beginner's guide, email me.  If you want to race Bionic Commando visit http://speedrunslive.com/channel/