Contra Race Strats

## Overview

Racing has become a growing part of the Contra community in the last year or so, and we have created a channel dedicated to showing these races live on Twitch - the ContraRaces channel, which will air our monthly races and soon will be airing periodic casual races. If you're interested in joining a race or starting one, even just a casual run, hit us up over on our discord channel and ask around in #racing.
With that said it would be prudent of us to share some strats that make racing more consistent and competitive, which makes for an overall better experience for both the runners and viewers. The standard Contra Any% run, like many NES speedruns, is full of reset points and strats that really cost time if not done correctly, and these *really* standout in a race.

There's really no greater deflator of confidence and desire than when you die in Jungle, which basically kills any real chance at winning that particular race. This is why we often format our races around multiple runs. No one likes prepping all month for a race only to see all that practice wasted by a messed up Waterfall route or basically right out of the gate from a bad Dikembe pattern.

In this brief section we're going to cover some of the strats you should adopt when participating in a race. Some of these you may already do, and that's ok, we're all here to have fun and complete the run in a live race setting.

## Jungle

### Jumping the Chasm

We learned in Jungle how to jump the chasm. It's a fairly easy jump for experienced runners, but we do fail it from time to time. This small margin is enough to make one rethink their approach here. Rather than risking it in a race, you can simply walk off the ledge, then jump safely to the next platform. But here you need to ensure you stop momentarily before jumping as you often find it a small window to jump while having inertia.
Another way is to simply drop down after destroying the turret. This is probably the safest route and, at worst, costs you half a second. Certainly worth it given the risk involved - death in Jungle and not getting spread again until Waterfall at the earliest, and R in Base 2 Room 5 *will* cause you a significant time loss against your opponent(s).

### Dikembe

There is no known way to immediately attack Dikembe's core with 100% safety. He will find a way to force you into resetting or, in a race, finger wag you into last place. You can try to dance around his tomatoes, but even this carries risk, as a bad pattern can eventually kill you, or worse, lead to waste more time than attacking him the intended way.
For this part, I recommend doing this fight as the developers intended. Take out the turrets by standing on the middle platform, then drop down and finish the core.
If done optimally, it will cost you about 6-8 seconds, but this pales in comparison to the 60 secs or so if you die, as the next two stages are much slower and more difficult without S and/or R.

## Waterfall

For those who the use the 2 Skip route, there's really no need to adjust, as it's the safest route known. Unless you mess it up, there is no reason to think you're not safe the entire way.
However, most experienced runners have moved on to the 4 or 5 skip routes since they save more time over the older 2 skip. The dangerous part here is jumping over the flame.

      A creative fellow by the name of Slormer found a workaround to this called the Slor4. It's a minor adjustment to the standard 4 skip route, avoids having to jump over the flame, still nets you the B and works with the Archy variant.
From the lower platform shown, move further left than you normally would, jump onto the bridge and pull left after the peak of your jump. Continue moving left for a moment, then run right, shoot southeast to shoot and grab the B, then jump again where you normally would to get the skip and continue on like normal.

## Snowfield

There are two sections here that have a knack for ending good runs and take runners completely by surprise - entry and the section right before the UFO boss.

Entry can considered a worthy risk as you won't have to wait long to get S+R back.

However, towards the end that last stretch can present some issues with trolls spawning in the worst possible places. Best to play it safe here as you want to avoid having to take on the UFO or JJ with peashooter.

## Energy Zone

The flames are a constant worry even in Any%, so for this level I highly recommend taking a safety duck at the first flame tower to avoid any unnecessary deaths.
The next section is the B Grab. Those who do the Exo Skip may want to consider using the Pause Trick as it's safer, and those using Pause Trick may want to think about grabbing the B.

## Hangar

For this part, I recommend slowing down a bit at the entry and taking out the first gunner from the middle platform or waiting to time your jump over his bullets. A death here isn't terrible as you can get S just before Heartbreak Alley, although you will lose a few seconds shooting down the first three spike walls.

Speaking of Heartbreak Alley, you absolutely are better served using the ducking strategy rather than trying to jump over the bullets. This section is harrowing enough in a speedrun, but it's even more dangerous to try the jumping strat in a race.