Cog_08

havent timed yet but should be faster. reaching cycle before he jabs much easier

right pathing saves about 1s but the wall dash wj into clawline cog is hard, maybe rng. strafe left and get max height before clawlining to make easier. (if anyone can pull this off consistently lmk)

faster cog core drop, saves .2 over current method. saves .07 if you dont make the entire harpoon through and have to walk off

As you're ideally cycle locked anyway, you can do clawline->pogo->clawline->dash and it sets you up to just jump and pogo and not have to do the hard sprint and pogo to hit the cogwheel

instead of walking or dashing and waiting for it to reset
handy if you need distance to sprint jump in the direction you came from

If you're scared you can use float instead of dash clawline it takes almost the same amount of time and is easier

snare setter drop at the end of the normal drop

Much easier imo, and i think this is about the same speed, im bad at other strats so i cant time accurately, i was getting around .15 faster times

on regard of the newest fast cycle

thanks to @74v13r that gave the idea, it does not save a cycle, but it's probably a little bit faster than going right (by nothing, but it's alternative routing and maybe a litle bit easier to do ?
It also need some fine tuning at the end

fastest route I could find that still gets three journal entries. main things here are the flea brew skip at the beginning and the skip at the end; the flea brew is near 100% consistent by just using at the apex of both jumps. if you're not quite fast enough, the fly idiot will hit you as you try to dash to kill the idiot on the right side; killing the cogfly as you're jumping up is a bit tricky, but not too hard. there can be some enemy rng here, but i'd say it works out around 90% of the time.
the skip at the end is the hard part, but you should have enough silk to attempt it 2-3 times. if you clawline the right saw too low or too high, hornet will clip the ceiling and not have enough height; no specific visual indicators or setups i could find, kinda just have to eyeball it.

dash clawline on this part is easier than just jumping at the nub since the sloped ceiling of the nub will push you down into the correct height
Clip 1. Aim to dash at the middle, using the pillar in the back as a reference. While jumping earlier is possible, it's not as easy as the timing is harder.
Clip 2. Don't jump too late, you can be pushed too far down, but this is pretty lenient
Clip 3. Bonus: you can claw the nub and still make it as long as you're far enough left

just posting this in strats bc I don't think anyone else has, these 2 dashes before the harpoons weren't being done before, suggested/found by @Megamin (#1 Mist Hater) , they make the cycle pretty lenient in ils, still scary in runs but somewhat viable now (with good loads at least)

this walljump is barely possible cloakless but way more lenient with cloak
second pogo on cog has to be in the middle of the cog for maximum height
Saves about 0.2s, just treat it as last ditch effort to make fast cycle for bells
You shouldn't really go for it but throwing it in strats just for documentation
edit: just wj > hold dash instead of 2 wjs like I did

Strats to make cursed cycle less cursed, getting the cycle should save around 1.8 seconds, its still load dependent both to pogo the moving cog in the right and to make the cycle, but more doable, the first clip shows that this is useful as a backup, if u dont reach the upper ledge u can do this instead of going all the way to the left

good luck

backup for if you miss this cog harpoon to reach the ledge
just ledge grab and harpoon at the peak of your mantle then hold left the whole time (typically I dive right to guarantee reaching the ledge after straining)

maybe? doable on key, though I dunno how that works out since I don't run cloakless

Better and faster version of this climb. To do this you need to pogo pretty high, harpoon at the peak of your pogo, buffer float and quickly use harpoon again. As you can see its lenient enough to be able to do it pretty quickly very reliably. I imagine if you have dash timings and strats may vary a little.

You can also skip the last ledge jump by doing an upslash on cd, wjing and skipping the hook entirely. There might be a better version of this when you have dash, but without it its pretty risky and doesnt save a ton of time

pretty tight variant of the fast fall, with a precise dash at the start, feels good to pull off though, removing 1 pogo from previous route

sneaky +1 silk for the road
hitting it with a side nail is obviously easier but rarely you wont have regened the silk heart and thus get no silk

not sure if this is faster than routing silk in later since you would have to avoid doing a clawline left in the next room. If not then it is +20 aura

small visual cue for the tricky jump in cog climb, jump here then harpoon when your head hits the ceiling

you can do this left side with only one silk excuse the sloppy execution it's not too much harder than the regular strat tho so worth going for

A couple visual cues to make the little skips in this room more consistent.

1. In the bottom right, start using Cloak and float over to the third knob in the background (on the rail which the hook travels on). When Hornet's eyes line up with the top part of the third knob from the right (the red rectangle), use Clawline. Begin holding left before the Clawline finishes so that you immediately start moving left and can get to the ledge.
2. For the second skip, Clawline into the large sawblade underneath the platform and immediately move to the right. Use Cloak shortly after you reach the peak of your height from the Clawline bounce. When Hornet's eyes line up with the red rectangle in the picture, use Clawline. There is a small knub in the background object within the rectangle that can serve as a visual cue. Begin holding right before the Clawline finishes so that you immediately start moving right and can get to the ledge.

flea brew skip to save probably like 5-7 seconds(you need to pop once before and once on the way up)

any% runners in shambles. CC please do not ban me

alt way to get to this platform from the left side

using a bunch of diagonal slashes for this part makes it very consistent and not too hard to remember

alt drop route

fast upper cogworks route, the first buzzsaw cycle can be beaten pretty consistently. Let me know if there is any optimization here or faster known route already