Hi! My name is Steppehaan and welcome to this guide! I’m very pleased you have come to this document and I hope I can help you learning and improving your speedruns of Trax Any%. I run and play this game for a long time now and started to look for any information about this game. There is almost nothing to find online, so I started this guide to become better myself and get more knowledge about the game. Please feel free to contact me on twitch or speedrun.com. Special thanks to KnightDmG who helped with this guide as well. :)
So, lets begin with the coolest part of the guide, the weapons:
Weapons
In the game there are different type of weapons, that can help you running this game faster.
Important to know about using weapons in trax: you can only have two of your own projectiles on screen at once. Because of this you want to be as close to the bosses as possible to increase your fire rate.
Standard: the standard bullet, has the highest fire rate. in the speedrun it is the most used bullet.
Weapons you can pick-up:
Rocket: this is a bullet that won’t be destroyed after hitting an enemy and can be used to clear away buildings and enemies in a single shot
Bomb: this is a bullet that explodes short after you shoot it and has a wider area of hitting enemies. For speedrunning purpose is it a very bad item because it does less damage, is very slow and creates a lot of lag! So try to avoid this item!
Triple: this weapon let you shoot 2 extra diagonal standard bullets. So you can hit 2 more enemies or buildings at the same time. It is most of the time not worth picking it up.
Double: this weapon let you shoot 1 extra standard bullet in the direct opposite way of your front bullet. So, you will shoot 1 bullet forwards an 1 backwards. it can be useful at some places in the run.
Other pick-ups
Fuel: this item will restore ~30% of your HP. It is very useful in the speedrun for beginners and advanced runners.
Life: this item gives you +1 extra life. For the speedrun its only recommended for beginners to pick it up.
???: this item is unknown… I have never seen it...
Enemies
Every enemy has its own abilities and characteristics. I researched every enemy on how much damage it does, what its weakness is, how much damage it will take to kill etc.
Name: Tank Defense: 1 Appearance: 1, 2, 3, 4
Info: This enemy can shoot only standard bullets. Some are moving around, some are only rotating. They can’t move fast. It has a low fire rate
Name: Bulldozer Defense: 1 Appearance: 1, 2, 3, 4
Info: This enemy can shoot only standard bullets. It has 6 wheels and that’s why it can move faster than standard tanks. It has a low fire rate
Name: Rotator Defense: 1 Appearance: 1, 2, 3, 4
Info: This enemy can shoot only standard bullets.This vehicle can only rotate or move around objects. It has a standard fire rate.
Name: Cannon Defense: 1? Appearance: 1, 2, 3, 4
Info: This enemy shoots Rocket bullets and does a bit more damage. It can’t move and it can’t rotate. fire rate is normal, but it shoots every 2nd bullet faster.
Name: Multitank Defense: 1 Appearance: 2, 3, 4
Info: This enemy shoots standard bullets. It can’t move and it can’t rotate. But it shoots with a higher fire rate, multiple bullets in 8 directions.
Name: Mine Defense: 1 Appearance: 1, 2, 3, 4
Info: These mines can sometimes move around, but slowly. They can’t shoot but if they get touched, hey will explode and do damage.
Name: Seeker Defense: 1 Appearance: 1, 2
Info: These tanks release 1 or 2 bullets that will follow you until they are destroyed.
Name: Mini-Copter Defense: 1 Appearance: 2
Info: These helicopters move with much high speed. They can shoot standard bullet and they rotate as well. They can’t shoot diagonal.
Name: Bug-Tank Defense: 3 Appearance: 2
Info: These enemies can move really fast. Some of these move 2 steps forward, and then 1 backwards. They are a bit harder to destroy.
Name: Rocket-Truck Defense: 6? Appearance: 2
Info: These enemies move normal or low. It moves always in 1 direction and it shoots 2 rockets every time. fire rate is high.
Name: Seeker-Truck Defense: 6? Appearance: 2
Info: This truck moves very slow and can shoot 2 seeking bullets, at the same time.
Name: Driller Defense: 3 Appearance: 3
Info: This truck moves with standard speed and can’t shoot. It can not rotate. At some point it will stop and stand still. Watchout, they can out of nowhere come out walls and surprise you.
Name: Time-Bombs Defense: 1 Appearance: 3
Info: These bombs can move fast and explode after some time. They also explode on contact.
Name: Boulder Defense: 3 Appearance: 3
Info: They are moving with fast, and with changing speed.
Name: Rail-Rocketeers Defense: 1 Appearance: 3
Info: They are moving with fast and shoot Rockets with a high fire rate!
Name: Rail-Seeker Defense: 1 Appearance: 3
Info: These tanks release 1 seeker bullet. It only stands still when it fires the seeker. then it flees away.
Name: Giga-Tank Defense: 5? Appearance: 4
Info: These tanks can shoot rockets in different patterns with a very high fire rate. theo also destroy building when moving. they move with standard speed.
Name: Motorbike Defense: 1 Appearance: 4
Info: These motorbikes try to damage you by moving really fast and hitting you on full speed. kill them before they hit you!
Name: Moving-Shield Defense: 1 Appearance: 4
Info: These tanks are not fast but can shoot annoying seeker bullets. they don’t move fast.
Bosses
Heli-Boss / Helicopter / Chopper
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Boxing-Dragon
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Giant-Tank
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Human / Astronaut / Robot
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Giant-Ball
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Clown
Needs 20? bullets to destroy; Needs 20? rockets to destroy
Finall Boss
1: Behind The Wall 2: Bomb-Arm 3. All-Weapon-Arms 4. Whistle 5. Hammer-Arm
Needs 20? bullets 20? 20? 0 20?
Needs 20? rockets 20? 20? 0 20?
Basic Tricks
Explosion-avoidance
Bombs and enemies that has exploding animation can create very much lag in the game and attacks your time drastically. You want to avoid as many bombs as possible.
Surviving
One of the biggest slowdowners of a Trax speedrun is losing a life and having your death animation on screen. the worst where you can lose like 10 seconds is at level 4, dying to RocketTank. So one of the tricks to be fast is to stay alive and not losing a single life!
Tank-rotation
one of the main mechanics of Trax is the way you rotate. The trick is practice, practice and practice. Try to practice the number of A presses. Every press is 45 degrees. So every 2 presses is 90 degrees. So to turn around a full circle is 8 presses. turning your tank backwards is 4 presses. If you keep those numbers in mind and practice to rotate and shoot as fast as possible you will see your time will improve much more.
Movement
In trax you want to move as much as possible straight forward. Just because it is faster. But sometimes you have to go a little bit sideways as well. Try to practice diagonal movement for optimal speed.
Explosion Prevention
In some stages you can prevent explosions from happening with perfectly timed shots. In stage 3 if you hit the bomb when the sprite is halfway on the screen the explosion-animation will not happen.
Advanced Tricks
Tank-Hugging
Okay, what i mean with this trick is literally stay super close to your enemies and bosses. Its more dangerous but it is the only way to defeat every boss in 1 cycle.
Damage-Boosting:
This is a very hard trick. the trick is to hit enemies or vehicles on a specific spot, that can bounce you in a certain direction, to give you a small boost forward.
Human-Early-Damage-Glitch:
This trick let’s you hit the human boss in level 2 some early bullets. Here is a youtube video how to do this trick: http://youtube.com
Damage-Skipping
Entering and leaving the caves in level 3 can be done fast, by uding this technique. Here is a video how to do this: http://youtube.com