BoF5 Notes

You can press Start to completely exit the menu no matter how deep in you are.  I never see anyone do this.

When it comes to interacting (opening doors, picking up items, talking with NPCs, etc.) you can hold the confirm button to instantly interact the frame you touch them.  This is slightly more convenient than just mashing the button and saves all the frames.  However, there's a sort of "cooldown" on this feature, so you'll have to release the button and tap/hold again if doing consecutive actions, like picking up multiple items.

You can hold R2 when selecting an item to buy to instantly select the max amount.  This is a bit more convenient than timing your R2 press.  If you mash through too quickly, though, you may only buy 1 of an item, but this only happens to me 1% of the time.

You only need to buy 10 Fresh Meat at the start.  There's a trick to conserve bait when getting by an enemy by dropping it and, while holding the confirm button and moving forward, you instantly pick it back up.  This only works on enemies that display a "!" above their head when spotting you.  It also may be a few frames faster than dropping the bait and walking around the enemy.

You can save a few frames by switching from Bosch to Ryu by doing it when opening an automatic door (the blue ones on the minimap).  This is because you'll stop at the door for a few frames before it's fully open, so you may as well use some of that time to switch.

Contrary to what I previously thought, getting the Nuggets for the first danger room does not lose you much time.  However, depending on the drops you get, you may lose a few seconds if you have to buy bombs after Bosch 1 for Duke Battlers.

You can save some shopping time by buying 4 Bombs at the shop just before the Cyclops fight.  This way, you won't have to go shopping at all after the Bosch 1 fight.

At level 7 or 8, Ryu can outspeed the Cyclops when removing his shield.

An optimal D-Dash is about 00.10% due to diminishing returns when held longer.
Every 00.10% of optimal D-Dash time is about 2 seconds faster than walking.

The usual Nina setup for Bosch 1 saves about 00.70% D-Counter, which would amount to about 14 seconds of optimal D-Dashing.  However, the full setup (3 G-Flares) takes around 19 seconds, and so G-Flares can be skipped to save more time.  If skipping Nina's setup completely, you can save about 5 seconds, though you will have to keep tabs on your D-Counter use.

You can hold R2 to target enemies farther away with Lin on the field.  This helps when you get the "bad" Duke Battler danger room (the one with the Duke Mage in front).

You only need to buy 30 Prox Bombs.  You can get extra hits on Deegon by spacing the Prox Bombs enough, so you don't actually need 40+ Prox Bombs.  It takes some practice but it's worth it.

Make sure you have at least 9440 Zenny when all your shopping is done after Frozen Road.  This guarantees you have enough money for the Mandau Blade +1 in MidSector Mall and 8 Bombs in Trinity Pit.  However, if you get Bombs in MidSector Mall, make sure you buy exactly 8 and not a full stack unless you have money to spare.

There are two strategies for the 8 Rangers.  One is to pray they don't waste your time, but there's another, newer strategy I found that was used by a Japanese runner named Romato--using Hey, hey! + C'mere! with the Cleaner.  It can save 30 seconds or more and also looks really cool.

One drawback to this strategy is you have to rely on a Sapphire Maser drop from the small EyeGoos (unless you want to go out of your way to buy a Plasma Maser instead, which is slower).  Otherwise, you're pretty much screwed for Zeno.  However, you can get the Frost skill from them which aids in the backup for both Tantra 2, Bosch 2 and Bosch 3, since you can combo into 10%-stronger Fireblasts.

For the Cleaner strategy, you can actually skip Kick if you want.  As long as Lin starts setting up after two specific enemies take their turn, you won't need Kick to line up any stragglers.  It's hard for me to describe this so I'll have to make a video demonstrating it at some point.  However, it can be still hard to line up the D-Breath, but it's usually possible and I'd rather risk a potential time loss lining up the D-Breath than guarantee one going out of my way for Kick.  You also get more money and Party XP out of this route.  Skipping Kick saves about 10 seconds.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcXTPj0yGho)

Attacking an enemy from behind grants an accuracy boost.  This is important because it's still possible to miss while in dragon form, which basically kills the run.  This is especially important if you get the Celtis, which has -20 accuracy.

If Nina dies during 8 Rangers, +664 XP to Ryu.
If Nina or Lin dies during Zeno, +467 XP to Ryu.
At most, Ryu can get an extra 1598 XP from these fights.

Make sure you're not above 66.90% when entering Jezuit's room (67.90% if you didn't get a crit on Deamoned).  You will not make it if above this threshold.

Make sure you're level 33 for Bosch 3.  He has a much greater chance to outspeed Ryu at level 32.