While the first post does a good job of explaining the basics, It is slightly innacurate in places, and does not include all the tricks.
Runs at 60fps
Goals include SS All Levels (100%)
Any% All Levels NG+ (Any% done from a completed save)
Low% All Levels NG+ (lowest dust collected possible on each level, determined by the combo meter, segmented run of this is currently in progress by myself)
Dust on surface
Dust Blocks/Dust Tiles
and Enemies
Super is gained after gathering 100 dust, An enemy hitting you will give 5 dust each hit (some enemies can multi hit several times to charge up a super in any% very quickly)
Mouse exits click twice on the same frame, clicking on the "yes" box will skip load and menuing time and take you outside the sub-area-nexus (the forest or city etc.) to the main nexus, Used after completing every level in an area, and in a few other places in Lab and City to save travel time (before finishing all the levels, you mouseexit, immediately enter back into the area to reach the next door faster)
Controls can be re-bound
Jump takes 8 frames, speed decreases over these frames, By jumping on the very last frame(s) you are on a ledge (and about to run off of it) you can cancel these frames and save speed in midair. Called Ledge-Jumping
Jumping uses up 1 air-charge (Killing an enemy replenishes aircharges to maximum, Supering also recharges to maximum, Dustkid has 2 aircharges all other characters have 1)
Light attacks deal 1 damage, can be spaced out instead of spammed to preserve hang time in the air and clear large gaps easier.
Killing an enemy gains you a few pixels of vertical height
Heavy Attacks deal 3 damage, will scatter dust onto surfaces. each takes roughly 0.4
Heavy and light attacks can be cancelled via dashing and jumping to end the animation cooldown early and initiating a new attack after jumping/dashing, can be used to heavy attack roughly twice as fast (but of course you are then jumping and dashing in between each attack, so you must position carefully)
By pressing all 4 (jump, dash, light, and heavy) buttons on the same frame after a heavy attack, you can ground-dash cancel the heavy attack and will heavy attack afterwards, based on timing. Ground-dash cancelling heavy attacks is otherwise impossible. Writeup on this here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RPyZryeTh7ADiWP6-S5q8Y7Ofb5KIA91U7kPptgj95c/edit?usp=sharing
Supers on 1 enemy takes 0.7ish, and adding 0.116 for each additional enemy.
Dashing on Dustworth does not take to maximum run speed, have to dash once and then let him run to gain speed. Dashing uses 1 aircharge, Dashing to maintain boosts is done roughly 4 and a half times a second, with 12 frames in between each dash.
Wall jumping or dashing does not use an aircharge
Can press Dash and Jump on the same frame to reverse momentum in midair to dash speed instantly, Can only be done at near 0 Y speeds.
Your hitbox does not change when falling, rather spikes do not stick out from the tile at all, it is purely a visual. Your character hitbox can fit through 3 pixels in between spikes on both walls in a 1 tile wide gap without touching the walls.
Ground boosting can be done from higher heights the more speed you have (including boost speed) want X and Y speed values to be roughly the same to achieve boost, Boost in approximately a 50% speed increase over dash/run speed.
Attack cancelling does not need to be done in midair. as mentioned earlier
Jumping from a 45 degree slope going to the right is faster then dash/run speed, Going to the left however is slower. (includes spikejumps)
Landing on the very edge pixel of spikes is possible (can also hit this pixel on walls and non-90 degree walls as well) landing on the very edge pixel of a dust block/dust tile will not destroy that tile until you move (can be used in low% to avoid picking up dust tiles but still being able to land on them)
Clipping can be done in several geometric configurations. The one used in the Grass Cave Best Time IL takes 7 jumps to clip through the wall. must dash into a 45 degree configuration to clip through (seen in Core Temple Best Time IL)
Block breaking height is roughly 80% of terminal velocity. Tile #'s should be accurate.
I believe dustgirls fall start is actually 3 frames faster then dustman. Does not reach terminal velocity faster (and not only on slopes) instead just starts the fall sooner. Keeps more speed during wall runs is something I have not heard and is confirmed, would need testing.
Dustworth's "slower" speed is likely due to the dash acceleration I mentioned earlier.
The Single Segment WR's are now 50:08 by Krankdud for SS All Levels, and 33:25 by Luffy for Any% All Levels.
The IL times for the segmented are also outdated by now obviously.
Some things not mentioned at all
-Ceiling slides are faster then dash/run speed initially, but reduces over time of the cling, release cling early for small speed boost.
-Attack hitboxes of Down and Up heavys can reach through walls/floors/ceilnigs etc. See Firefly Forest SS
-Jump and attacks are disabled at the start of the tutorial level.
-"spikejumping" on 45 degree dust tiles will not destroy the dust tile, can be used to skip dust in low%
-porcupines shoot spines which can be deflected into enemies to instantly kill them, overlapping enemy hitboxes can result in 1 spine killing 2 enemies.
-Wall slides downward are quite slow, instead use "superdrops", freefalling slightly off of the wall and using attacks while falling to clean the dust on the wall (Night Temple SS)
-Attacking spines shot by porcupines will gather dust (Grass cave SS used to get a 2nd super)These function like apples, so heavy attacking all 3 spines+the porcupine itself will give 10 dust, from a 1 hp enemy(not including any dust spread onto surface)
-Enemies who fall into deathzones are considered killed/cleaned for the purpose of SS ranks, Skipping them to save time if they will fall into a deathzone is possible and still get SS rank.
-Because heavy attacks are slow, light attacking an enemy so he will be in range for you to heavy attack it and another enemy can save time (1 light+1 heavy=faster then 2 heavys)
-Light attacking with Dustkid is faster then heavy attacking
For all other characters 2 light attacks are faster then 1 heavy attack (useful on 5 hp enemies)
-Ingame replays are available for all IL's for any% and SS, can be used as an excellent place to start getting an idea for routes and improvements.
-Occasionally an enemy will not be tied to the goal flag and does not need to be killed for any% (though it might be faster to with a super rather then waste time avoiding it)
-Spikestand can be done on angled surfaces(concrete temple best time) 1 tile above is 5 pixels of width, 2 tiles of height above it becomes impossible due to you sliding on the sloped floor.
-by jumping repeatedly very fast on 26 degree walls, you can infinitely climb them
-Checkpoints can be used to deathwarp (Moon temple best time, peta difficult best time) useful for any% and low%
-lower left part of character hitbox will not be killed by spikes. Can be used to jump and ledge climb over spiked surfaces.
-Dustman and Dustgirl cannot get up the wall from Knight hall to Tower
-Dustworth has the fastest groundboost speed
-Rooted slimes can be hit into a sling animation and killed with 2 lights, normally would take 4
-Wiring SS is based off of specific "fake" dust patches, and specific "real" dust patches, not based on a # of dust collected etc.
-Dustkid and Dustworth have a slower maximum fall speed
-Character will potentially unload (softlock of the level, must restart from beginning) if too far outside of camera. Camera nodes are wonky.
I'll edit this after I get back from lunch with anything else I remember. dustforce IRC and Eklipz/Myself are the ones to contact for more info on stuff, we are the most knowledgeable about the game.
