This guide will be teaching you about Lava Tube Skip (LTS) by going into great detail about each segment of the skip.
A more technical breakdown written by Kuitar can be found here.
Requirements needed to perform LTS:
· Full Health (Full Heart + 50)
· Knowledge of Jak speedrunning movement
· Patience
Technical Terms to know before hand:
· Pause Buffer - pressing Start + L2/R2 at the exact same time.
· Extended Uppercut - uppercut that increases vertical distance.
· Boosted Uppercut - uppercut that increases horizontal distance.
· Scoutfly Boosted - a Boosted Uppercut off of the edge of a Scoutfly Box.
· Idle Animation - the animation that Jak performs after 30 seconds of no movement.
· Active Area - the area that Jak is currently in (Pause Menu will display the Active Area).
· Stored Area - the most recent area where Jak either died, watched a cutscene, or performed an Idle Animation. (These three actions will store the area in the background).
· Idle Deload - changing your Active Area to your Stored Area by interrupting an Idle Animation with a Pause Buffer.
IMPORTANT VIDEOS - Watch before reading...
This first video is a quick overview of the LTS route.
This second video explains what to do if you don't load in Lava Tube correctly.
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1.) The Rocket Uppercut
Rocket Uppercut is a specifically timed uppercut into an awkwardly angled piece of ground collision that gives Jak an enormous amount of height while remaining in his standing position (ground state). By uppercutting into the edge of the wooden plank (as seen in the video above), Jak will launch upwards while maintaining his standing position.
Once Jak is thrown upwards by the Rocket Uppercut, you are able to Zoom with the triangle button and hold Jak's position in the air. You are able to do this because a Rocket Uppercut keeps Jak in his standing position. After unzooming with another press of the triangle button, you have a small amount of time before Jak enters his falling animation. During this small amount of time, you are able to perform limited movement tech, such as a jump, punch, and spin kick. You use this small amount of time to perform an Extended Uppercut towards the wall, which will get you over the wall collision and out of bounds. Once you are out of bounds, you move onto Step 2.
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2.) Storing Lava Tube
This Step is directly connected to Step 7.
If you have seen Lava Tube Skip performed in a run before, then you know that right after a runner gets out of bounds with the Rocket Uppercut, they immediately move up a bit and then hold still for 30 seconds. By moving up a bit, the runner passes through the checkpoint trigger that changes their Active Area from Volcanic Crater to Lava Tube.
After the runner has triggered the Lava Tube checkpoint, they hold still for 30 seconds. This allows Jak to perform an Idle Animation, which happens after 30 seconds of no movement. The important thing about the Idle Animation is that it changes your Stored Area to whatever your current Active Area is.
EXAMPLE: If you are in Sandover Village and you allow Jak to do his Idle Animation, you can walk into Sentinel Beach like you normally would and you will still have Sandover Village set as your Stored Area.
Some things that can overwrite your Stored Area are: Using the teleport gate, dying in a different area, doing Idle Animation in a different area, and watching a cutscene.
Setting your Stored Area to Lava Tube is needed later on for Step 7.
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3.) Making Volcanic Crater Jak's Current Checkpoint
After a runner has set their Stored Area to Lava Tube with an idle animation, they then need to go back towards the checkpoint trigger that changes their Active Area back to Volcanic Crater. There are different methods to doing this, but the easiest method is by going back towards Volcanic Crater and moving your camera back in-bounds (See first Important Video). By doing this, you change Jak's current checkpoint to Volcanic Crater. You want to get Jak into Lava Tube with this checkpoint still active, and to do that you need to bypass the first Lava Tube checkpoint.
4.) Lava Tube Checkpoint Bypass
In order for Lava Tube Skip to work, you need to skip the first Lava Tube checkpoint and enter Lava Tube with a different Active Area / checkpoint (in this case it will be Volcanic Crater). Skipping the first Lava Tube checkpoint can be done by performing a Checkpoint Bypass. This is also connected to Step 7, and will allow you to force the game to spawn Jak at the second checkpoint on the zoomer in Lava Tube.
There are different methods you can use to perform this Checkpoint Bypass: Double Jump Bypass, Extended Bypass, Long Extended Bypass, Zoom Walk Bypass. All have the same result, but runners all have their preferred method that they are comfortable with.
This is a tutorial video of the Extended Bypass method.
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5.) Getting to the Scoutfly Box
Once a runner has bypassed the Lava Tube checkpoint, they clip back in-bounds and make their way through Lava Tube on foot until they reach the Scoutfly Box. There are specific areas throughout Lava Tube that have cold spots, or spots that won't do damage to you, that you can use to make your way to the Scoutfly Box.
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6.) The Scoutfly Boosted
If you're attempting to do Lava Tube Skip, I'm going to assume that you have already watched the Movement Basics video. If you haven't. I would highly recommend watching that video to understand movement techniques and how they are performed.
So in the Movement Basics video, you learned how to do a Boosted Uppercut, which is a movement technique that can send Jak a very far distance horizontally. A Boosted Uppercut can be performed on every ledge that Jak is able to normally stand on, including the edge of a Scoutfly Box. For this step in Lava Tube Skip, you will be performing a Boosted Uppercut off of a Scoutfly Box so that you land in a specific cold spot that cannot be reached any other way in a run.
This technique is the biggest run killer for any new runners attempting a run that utilizes LTS. The Scoutfly Boosted is just a normal Boosted Uppercut that involves changing Jak's facing direction before the button inputs, so it's nothing too special. I'd recommend turning on full Debug Mode for practicing this trick, and you can use any ledge you want; you're not limited to only scoutfly boxes.
Like the Checkpoint Bypass previously in Step 4, there are different methods of doing a Scoutfly Boosted, such as Regular Scoutfly Boosted, Zoom Scoutfly Boosted, and Angled Feet Scoutfly Boosted (these three being the most common methods for runners).
Here is a video that shows the three methods being performed and how to set them up individually.
TIP: If the Scoutfly Box keeps hopping and ruining your setup, use the circle button to perform a spin kick. This will prevent the Scoutfly Box from hopping.
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7.) Idle Deload
Once you have performed the Scoutfly Boosted and landed in the cold spot, move up to where Jak will need to perform an Idle Deload (See video timestamp below).
Standing inside of that little rock is where you want Jak to be positioned for this final step. Next, we need to hold still for 30 seconds so that Jak will perform his Idle Animation. But, on the 28th or 29th second, we need to interrupt the Idle Animation with a Pause Buffer, which will cause an Idle Deload to occur. This will then cause the game to deload the Volcanic Crater checkpoint that Jak currently has. After that, the game will then search for the checkpoint nearest to Jak's position and assign that as the new current checkpoint. In this case, Jak is closest to the second Lava Tube checkpoint, so this is the checkpoint that gets assigned as the current checkpoint. Then, when Jak dies, he respawns at the second Lava Tube checkpoint on the zoomer.
NOTE: The second Lava Tube checkpoint is programmed to always spawn Jak on the zoomer, no matter what.
TIP: You will know that the Idle Deload worked correctly if Jak's foot twitches. Once Jak's foot twitches, you are free to die and respawn on the Zoomer.
Once the game respawns Jak at that second checkpoint with the zoomer, you are free to ride the zoomer to the end of Lava Tube.