AoS/Julius Mode Any%

Movement

Contrary to Soma, Julius can perform his divekick after performing a single jump. Due to the very fast movement speed of the divekick, you'll want to be performing this constantly at literally any time you can. Ideally you want to let go of down before Julius hits the ground so that he will immediately begin traveling right, instead of stalling on the ground for a moment.

It is faster to repeatedly shorthop+divekick than to double jump+divekick, I believe.

Instead of a backdash, Julius' L button performs Omnia Vanitas. This move turns Julius intangible for a brief period, as well as letting him cross gaps if timed right. Omnia Vanitas is slower than Julius' normal movement due to the end lag, but is useful on occasions to avoid damage and knockback.

Route

The current fastest route is shown in Ponpon's world record run below. To summarize:

- Kill Creaking Skull

- Head into Inner Quarters

- Activate the teleporter in Inner Quarters

- Leave Inner Quarters the way you entered

- Head to the room with the Catoblepas and perform a Zip off the Catoblepas

- Zip to the Chapel teleport room

- Enter Manticore from the left, and perform the Double Orb Glitch

- Head to the Chapel teleport room and teleport to Inner Quarters

- Enter Top Floor, and head to Graham

- Kill Graham

Double Orb Glitch

For every Boss Orb that Julius collects, his stats increase. The any% route collects three boss orbs for the fastest power gain, while not taking longer than it would take to kill Graham without.

The first boss orb is from Creaking Skull, while the other two are from the Manticore, via the Double Orb Glitch.

The Double Orb Glitch relies on the Manticore having two separate hitboxes: one for its body, and one for its tail. If Julius kills both hitboxes as the same time, the game thinks he killed two bosses, and spawns two orbs. There are two setups for the Double Orb Glitch.

The faster (but riskier) setup is the Grand Cross method, which involves manipulating the Manticore into striking with its tail while Julius uses Grand Cross.

The slower (but safer) method involves landing 4 Axe hits (over two double-hits), a single whip hit, and then striking both segments of the Manticore with a single whip strike as it attacks Julius.