Contra Hangar

## Stage 7 Hangar

Stage 7 Boss "Cross"

(Overall Split Time)

## Overview

This is it. This stage is considered the final level to overcome as you'll find out why on the next page, *Alien's Lair*. This level features a variety of destructible walls, claws you must navigate through, and arguably the most nerve wrenching ending to a level in the entire game - *Heartbreak Alley*.

## Entry

   This entry is probably the most technical in the game, so this first may seem long, but with practice it will seem harder than it really is.
Run and drop down to the lower route. More often than not you will need to wait briefly for the first claw to retract. This is done for two reasons. The first being that by waiting for it you know it will be safe to continue onward. The second is that, as we learned in *global timers*, the next set of claws descends on the same timer as the first, so if we proceed without stopping we will *always* be in prime position to advance.

After making it past the claws, you'll want to shoot down the F that's flying in. We don't want to either accidentally grab or have it land in our way, so we prevent this by jumping and shooting straight down so it lands safely behind us.

The next step is walk off the ledge and onto the cart, giving us a momentary speed boost. Jump up onto the platform to be in position for the next step, which is to shoot a buffer shot, then, when you're about to run out of platform, jump and land while shooting to take out the gunner. Be quick here because he will nail you. This will get over the tomato and able to kill the gunner before he shoots again, and you don't really have to slow down. You can pause briefly on the claw platform if you're still learning the timing so you don't get hit by the tomato.

Lastly, jump on top of the rising spike wall to skip having to destroy them. As you're jumping, keep shooting so you get some damage on the spike wall coming up. Then clear the next two.

### B Grab

   Grabbing the B here will save you plenty of time and hassle for the next 20 secs. I highly recommend getting it, else you are left later to hope a cart shows up, jump on it, then jump the chasm to then have to blast through three more spike walls. This is very slow compared to grabbing the B and making a bee line for the spike walls that pop up later.
You can see here in Frezy's run he didn't grab the B, as it was the strategy at the time (this run was performed in 2008). With both strats done optimally, a B grab with Chariot Hop will save three seconds over no B grab and having to blast through three spike walls.

One thing to be mindful of when taking the bottom route is how many bullets you're shooting. Ideally you will shoot southeast so can destroy and enemies that may come your way but also don't destroy the cart that appears after the final claw. You will need this cart to grab the B. If you accidentally destroy this cart, sometimes a second one will spawn under the B box and you can use that, but don't bet your run on it.

#### Standard Jump

    For this you jump as you normally would onto the cart, then wait for moment, and jump onto the middle platform in front of B as soon as your able to clear it. You want to land here as soon as possible so the screen scroll doesn't open the B box too soon, else you'll have to wait for it to open again, costing you more time.
Once on the middle platform, jump again and shoot straight down to grab the B, then immediately drop to bottom level so you can be off to the races! Be sure to stay on the bottom route the entire time! Remember that *B is active for an extra 2.5 secs* here so you have time to make it past the final claw that repeatedly drops.

#### Chariot Hop

        Aside from getting on the cart here, everything is the same as Standard Hop.
To do the Chariot Hop, you need to jump at seemingly the last possible moment in which the game will just "magically" put on the cart. We believe it has to do with overlapping sprites, but there is room to shown incorrect in this thought. Regardless, you should be aiming southeast, and you have a small window here to jump - When the tip of your gun is touching the cart and when Bill's leg is touching the cart. This is your window. Much like we saw with the *chasm in Jungle*, even though it seems tight, once you get the hang of it, it's not terribly difficult.

Once you're on the cart, jump onto the middle platform as before, grab the B and make a bee line for the trio of spike walls via the bottom route.

### Wallbreak

    Wall break can a tough one to get consistently or even get a good feel for. It's far from frame perfect, but you have only a dozen frames or so to grab the B and drop down.
As you're dropping down to the bottom, be sure to be pressing right. After passing the pair of claws you can either jump over the ledge onto the cart or simply walk off. Regardless of where you jump or whether you walk off there is only a single frame of difference time wise, according to *AndrewTekkie*, who timed it out a while back.

From here be sure to destroy all carts and enemies in front of you to prevent lag. Jump over the pit and then make the two jumps up to the spike wall and simply walk through it. Be sure to stop just after destroying it so you don't run into the second one.

### Heartbreak Alley

    This section has killed probably as many runs as *Dikembe* and *Base 2 Boss* have and can easily be considered the true boss for this stage. It's known for its trollery and general penchant for putting in seemingly no-win situations. "Heartbreak Alley ***will*** have its sacrifice."

    The first leg of this section is the six claws, which drop in two waves - evens and odds followed by a spike triggered when you reach the fourth claw. You can advance two claws if you time it just right. It's a good size window and doesn't require much practice to figure out. With the S you should have no trouble ridding yourself of the spike wall.
Beyond the claws is a pair of gunners and undoubtedly some trolls. The first gunner you must duck under his shot, as there is a roof type thing overhead, so jumping is a no-go. The second one though you are able to jump over his bullet if you like. Jumping here is faster than ducking, but also more deadly as trolls can come from behind you and shoot or just run at you. It's not uncommon to be in the air with no choice but to land on a bullet or be ducking, see a troll coming from behind and not be able to stand up to turn because there's a tomato headed your way.

If you manage to make it this far, fire a buffer shot to the right for *detrollage* then make the jump up to the platform. You'll find another pair of gunners and likely more trolls. You can either jump their tomatoes like before or duck. After clearing the second one it's on to the easiest boss in the game.

#### Pause Claws

Like most of the claws on Hangar, this sequence of claw drops is determined by the *Global Timer*, similar to the flame sections on *Energy Zone*. Because of this, we are able to use a *pause buffer* to skip over the frames where the claws would normally drop down. This is achieved by pausing and un-pausing quickly at specific moments (see below), allowing us to get under all of the claws without having to stop. Having the game paused when the claw would normally drop down prevents it from dropping altogether. As one set of claws fully retracts, the next set drops immediately after. The short time between (when all claws are fully retracted) is your cue to perform the pause buffer.
Since you'll be arriving at different times in the claw cycle depending on your pace, you'll need to use your own judgement to decide if you want to pause buffer for one, both, or none of the claw drops. This decision is something you'll get more comfortable with as you practice the Pause Claws trick. Not only are you trying to time your pauses, but you still need to be firing fast enough to destroy the spike wall that appears at the end of the claws without stopping for the strategy to be time efficient. For this reason, controller grip can play a large role in successfully implementing the Pause Claws trick.

##### Timing the Buffers

If you need to stop (or pause buffer) to prevent being killed by the *first* claw, you will most likely need to pause buffer a second time to safely make it under all the claws. Timing the second pause buffer can be difficult since you no longer have the visual cue of the claws raising to determine when to pause+unpause again. A trick to timing the second buffer is to watch Bill and make your second pause buffer after he has traveled 2 claw-widths away from when you made your first pause. If you prefer audio cues, you can try to space out your pause buffers by the same length of time that it would take for the pause jingle to play again.

If you arrive on a claw cycle where Bill can safely make it under the first and/or second claws without having to stop, you may be able to make it all the way through with only a single pause buffer.

> Note: For this trick to save time over the standard strategy of stopping briefly in the 'safe' areas (usually 2 short stops), you MUST pause and unpause very quickly.

## Boss

This boss is by far the easiest one in the game. For any speedrunner, the mechanics here are almost nil. From beneath you a turret will arc a shot in the air that splits into three (similar to Scuba Steve in *Waterfall*). A moment later it will fire from a second turret the same way. There's also a door beneath the Cross that opens, but trolls will *never* come out of there if you're pressed up against it. Occasionally you'll get a troll from behind that shoots at you, but it's easily dispatched.

    As we see here in the clip, after killing the second and final gunner, get a nice bullet hose going. Start jumping so that your hose is lined up with the peak of your jump. As you approach the Cross you can start doing damage before you're fully in position. Bosses in this game become vulnerable when they're about 70% of the way on screen. So the more damage you can on your approach the faster you can kill the Cross.
An ideal kill here is when the first grenade fired from the turret doesn't get above the walkway. An average kill is when the grendade gets halfway up the screen, and a slow kill is the grenade reaching the top of the screen or even dissipating into the three tomatoes. With practice, your kills will get faster, and you will have a greater number of average kills and even some fast ones.

## Explore more from this game

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1. ↑ Map courtesy of NESMaps.com by Rick N Bruns
2. ↑ Shown from Frezyman's 10:17 run in 2008
3. ↑ Footage shown from SuperPitFro's 10:01 run on Aug 7th, 2020
4. ↑ Taken from Frezyman's 10:17 run in 2008
5. ↑ Clip from Frezyman's 10:17 run in 2008