Contra Energy Zone

## Stage 6 Energy Zone

Stage 6 Boss aka "JJ", "Jumpin' Joey"

(Overall Split Time)

## Overview

This level is a nail biter for runners. It features a flame tower controlled by a *global timer* which has the ability to help or hurt your time, a propensity for trolls to lag the game if you're not careful, and a completely random boss fight. This is make or break for a lot of runs.

## How To

### Entry

   This is fairly straightforward. Simply run through and drop (or jump) to the bottom route when able and clear enemies in your path, consistently firing to keep the trolls in check.

### L Flame & Turrets

   To get past the L Flame here (the one that shoots straight down) you must wait a brief moment for it to start receding before continuing. This is a great opportunity to clear any trolls that may be behind you since you have to stop anyways.
    After clearing the flame and chasm, start shooting as there are two turrets you'll face. You can either duck the shot from the bottom gunner, or you can jump over it. There is a visual cue on where to jump from so as to jump over the bottom shot and not get hit by the upper shot, and it's pretty a wide window. There's four vertical black lines on the floor. When your sprite is over them, jump while shooting southeast to safely take out the gunner without dying, slowing down, or landing on the middle platform.

### Flame Tower

    This part is a bane to any runner. There are three levels of flames you must clear to proceed, and they run on a *global timer*. The scary part is that unless you're consistent at getting this far on pace, you won't know which flame you get - it could be a flame to the face (and thus death), or it could be the "god pattern" center flame that allows you breeze through here without hesitation.
As you approach you should always consider a safety duck just as you enter the tower. This will allow you to recognize where in the pattern you are so you can proceed safely. If you get a bottom flame, stand up when safe then you should now be able to make it through without pause. If you get a middle flame, you shouldn't ever have to hesitate if you're quick. Top flame means you will have to duck at some point.

### Flame Tower Drop

There's three ways to make it through this section without the stopping and waiting that many beginners or casuals would do. Here's a look at all three.

Timing - B Grab is the slowest of the three mentioned here. It's about two secs slower than using the Pause Trick and three seconds slower than Exo Skip. Pause Trick is about one sec slower than Exo Skip, as the primary loss is from pausing and unpausing the game.

#### B Grab

    The first thing to do is eliminate the sniper. Make sure you jump to the middle of the platforms in the double flame section to prevent the sniper from spawning and risking his bullets obstructing your path. The flame here is based on proximity, so you'll have to jump over it. At the peak of your jump shoot straight down to pop the B out of the box below you. If the bottom is clear drop down, grab it, then head off to JJ. Make it a point here to use the bottom route and jump over the chasm. Going top over the chasm is not only unnecessary, it'll cost you time, not so much that your B will run out, but more so on your timer.

#### Pause Trick

        This strat is easier and safer than the Exo Skip explained below, but it is a bit slower. In the pic here, this is your visual cue on when to jump. When the lower flame reaches or nearly reaches full length, pause for a brief moment, then unpause. Quickly descend through the tower to continue on.
What's happening here is that these two flames fire on a timer which you can read about here - **Global Timers*.*

#### Exo Skip (aka Splice-o Skip)

    To help make sense of what needs to be done here, keep in mind that all of the horizontal flames in this section are shooting in sequence and are tied to the *Global Timer*. After making the climb up the jumps with the three flames, head to the right towards the 'step' where the two flames are. You want to make sure you "chase" the bottom flame with your first jump up here. Timing is crucial, since the faster you get up here, the faster you get to the next set of flames. Making these next jumps quickly and not losing time on the climb here keeps your frame window open longer when it comes time to drop down through the platform to skip under the Exo flame.
As you jump up passed the 2 flames, make sure you hold 'Right' so that Bill is pushing into the side of the wall. This guarantees you're as far forward as possible, getting you to the Exo flames as quickly as possible. For other strats like the 'B Grab', a lot of players will jump to the left during this climb to make it easier to dodge the sniper troll's bullets, help time the jump over the vertical flame, or shoot the 'B' power-up. You can't do that with this trick since the timing window is so tight. Any lost movement from the 2-flame climb until the Exo flame will most likely result in death.

As you make the second jump up to the top of the platform, take 2 shots to the right to kill the sniper, then jump over the vertical flame. Continue to run to the right until you reach the marked position in the screenshot below. Making the jump at this time will land you at the first pixel of the Exo flame ledge. You need to time your Down+A here really well when you land to drop through it before the flame kills you. The window of time you have here will depend on how quickly you made all of the jumps leading up to this point from the bottom of the '2-flame' section.

> Note: It is actually possible to complete the traversal from the bottom 2-flame section all the way to the Exo flame so quickly that when you drop down under it, you hit the extended last flame and die, basically being "*Too sick for the trick*™". This isn't usually something you need to worry about, but it HAS ended some very good runs.

> ⚡SPEEDLORE: The 'Exo Skip' earned its name after the player that found it, ExoSDA. He was a fairly popular and skilled runner known for running Super Meat Boy, Ninja Gaiden, Contra, and some other games with very competitive times. He was caught cheating his runs with spliced video (doctored video clips) by the Super Meat Boy community. Subsequently, the other communities checked his runs and noticed evidence of the same video splicing techniques. Because of this, you will sometimes hear the trick referred to as the "Splice-o skip" instead of the "Exo skip."

### Leap of Faith

    The flame beneath the gunner just past the B is the only flame on a random timer both for when it fires and for how long. It's been calculated to have about a 5% success rate and no known way to manipulate it as of yet. It's a very risky strat and should only be used when the run is already "dead" and/or for funsies.

> **Note:** Doing this jump while having the B does not make it a "Leap of Faith" as you will have invulnerability and no threat of death. It is actually encouraged to use this route if you have the B as, once again, it is one sec faster to take this bottom route.

### Path to JJ

        After passing through the final flame tower, assuming you don't have B, you want to take the upper route. Destroy the turret on your approach, wait for the flame, de-troll, then drop to the bottom route. Press onward and jump over the bottom tomato onto the middle platform. You should jump when you're over those vertical black lines just like before. Destroy the two turrets and you're on to the boss - JJ.

## Boss

    What makes this fight challenging is that JJ is 100% random, and no way is yet known to manipulate his actions. Your only choice is to react and hope he cooperates with as little jumping and movement as possible. He can throw discs one, two, or even three in a row, he walk back and forth, and he can jump (and he will...alot. hence the name Jumpin' Joey or Jumpin' Jack Flash).
Regardless of what he does keep blasting away and pay attention. Be ready for anything. At about half health he'll turn purple and at about 1/4 health he'll turn orange. The next important thing to remember here is where you are when he dies. *Head right as soon as possible as fast as possible*. If you think you won't make it to the door before losing control, jump. Jumping will maintain your forward momentum and save a slice of time running across the screen.

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1. ↑ Map courtesy of NESMaps.com by Rick N Bruns