This guide is meant to change the way you see the game from a nearly impossible hellish reaction game to what it really is: a luck game

I’ll share a bunch of tips and small tricks that can make you more consistent, but they won’t guarantee victory. Only persistence will.

The hardest part about Arcade mode isn't the perma-death, it's the time limit.
In theory, you could full-clear every level with patience and caution, which you have to budget with the time limit.

Fugue and Adrift are notoriously brutal with their time limits in some of their most unfair segments (Fury and Abandon Ship/Wreck)

It's advised to collect the bananas after doing the arcade mode so you aren't under the constraint of a time limit.

So this is a collection of notes, tricks, and observations that might help you survive the grind

The sooner you embrace this, the better you'll deal with it.

You can only improve your consistency to a point. There will be impossible runs.

Luck decides as to whether enemies spawn in your path or not, and if their shots from off-screen will hit you, and if there will be covers for you to use.

Some horror stories:

Adrift can load large segments in Hit the Deck or Abandon Ship without any real cover and sixteen enemies that you cannot outrun.

During the blackout segments, there’s a small chance enemies just start firing blindly.
There was a run where I was shot three times by off-screen enemies and died during those blackouts, one where an explosive enemy next to me got shot and killed me.
And another where the barrel next to me got shot and the fire got me.

In Fugue I had the rockets fall while I was juking enemies in a tree cover, it cornored me in an unwinnable spot.

You know the containers that can randomly contain enemies? Good practice to push while inside them to kill enemies, right? There is a chance it's an explosive enemy or a group with a machine gun (extremely rare, both only happened twice)

Bananas spawn seems to be tied to random chance.
Sometimes they are neatly on your path, sometimes they are in deadends, and you do have to look for them in Break In if you are unlucky.
In some runs they don't seem to spawn at all (at least in High Rise).
To make sure, it’s best to exit the album and restart after every attempt, even if you die in the first level.

Therefore, my biggest piece of advice is this

Treat this like a wheel you have to spin, don't expect any single run to win, only that you will win eventually if you keep spinning.

The improvement and knowledge will follow as you keep trying.

It took me 126 attempts to beat Adrift on Arcade Hard, and it was my luckiest attempt by far

Second biggest reason as to why I made this guide
Hard Arcade Mode Fugue can randomly freeze you during the end segment, not allowing you to move.
Face directly right before this segment and continue attacking(pushing) when you hit it, eventually you get the credits.

You can use the pause button as a way to increase your reaction time.

You can use programs such as AutoHotkey and create a setup such as "XButton2::Esc" (rebinding any button with esc). This allow you to very quickly pause the game at will. But you should be careful, I have lost tens of runs by accidentally clicking on Restart Level during the pause.

You can gain a slightly faster speed by angling your APE.

Apparentely the ape walks faster when facing sideways. (up or down).
It’s a fun trick to practice while grinding, but the boost is very minor.
For example, in the first level of Adrift - Hold Fast. I averaged about two seconds faster per run when I was using this strat.
Works in any direction as long as you maintain the weird offset angle.
Easiest way is to face right and hold up or down while keeping right pressed.
If your angle is off (too offset), you can actually lose speed instead of gaining it.


Your Grab has a different reach than your Push.

Your push goes further than it looks (about a palm), can easily miss if you're too close to the target.
Your grab seems to have a wider angle around you.
Learn to grab quickly if you miss a push. It has a much more forgiving hitbox.

The throw includes a push at point blank.

That's why it seems like you're able to throw things and push enemies at the same time, because you are.

Throw limbs to stun enemies.

Either by grabbing or pushing, 2 seconds of stun is a run saver in this game.

Use enemies to shoot in the dark

Specially useful in Fugue and Adrift with the open areas

The enemies have different stages indicating when they will shoot.

It takes a few seconds for them to reset their reaction time when you leave their line of sight, if you appear in view too fast they will shoot faster (sometimes instantly).
Rockets do not follow this rule, the moment they ready their gun they will shoot, no matter if you are in view or not

They will only engage if they are on screen

Which favors strategies that stick to the borders of the map, if you can't see the enemy and it doesn't walk into screen, it won't notice (not counting the flashlight during the first album)

They will shoot even if they are off-screen as long as they are engaged and in line of sight

If you leave their line of sight for a second it causes them to temporarily disengage, which basically prevents them from shooting

The enemies can actually fire blanks

It's the thin lines that are shot instead of the thick damaging ones
Very visible in the shots from the shotgun
These blanks do not hurt you and equally do not hurt the enemy.
They either don't seem to happen when you're in close range or they can actually damage you (I can't really tell)
The chance to fire blanks on rifles seems to be roughly 10% (pure guesswork), very visible in middle to long distance, specially when the shot goes through you and doesn't hurt.

The enemies have a built in chance to hit or miss

APE OUT is a luck game, if the shot rolls well, it will hit you no matter how precise it had to be. Movement and distance seems to decrease the chance considerably, but the direction or angle doesn't seem to matter.

I personally tap up and down when I expect a shot, partly out of superstition.

When you are grabbing metal doors, the noise attracts enemies a radius around you

So clear the area before you open it

Rocket explosions attracts enemies

I don't get it either, you see it sometimes when a rocket hits a container.
I'm also adding this here since I can't be bothered to make a segment for each album, but you can push enemies through thin walls, specially container walls

You can easily juke the flamethrowers

They can't turn faster than you can run, as long as you're not extremely close. If you don't walk into the flames, they can't hit you. This turns them into a relatively harmless enemy

However, they can light up these black spots around the map

Really cool interaction, you can guess how I figured that out



The flamethrower fire their gun for a really long time if you hold them

Consider using them more often while clearing groups in short distances, avoid if the enemies are already shooting

The thrown limbs are stopped by the flamethrower

So it's yet another thing to keep in mind

The thrown bombs can collide with arms and explode immediately

This is the sole reason that forced me to make this guide, it's the most unfair interaction in the game and caused three deaths in perfect runs.

The hitbox from the explosion is deceiving

It's slightly bigger than it's shown

Do not push explosive enemies unless you have a good distance

As you get used to grinding the levels, you will push them on reflex, and they will explode on your face because there was a pistol enemy right behind it or a wall that was closer than it seemed. Unlike bullets, explosives are instadeath.

Odd happenings that may lead nowhere

There were times I paused the game, and when I eventually unpaused the enemies teleported randomly

Some right beside me as they were shooting, some out of bounds, happened twice in my attempts

There is a weird out of bounds in this game

If I remember the proper instructions I'll share since it's been months since I did it, but it's like restarting the level during level transitions putting you in the void, specifically in the first album

It's very hard to navigate and find your way in the void, but you can eventually find the level borders again and finish it by reaching the end of it, and going to the next level's void

I never had any luck finding anything in this second void

Besides all these useless observations, I hope you take away that you just have to go back to the mines and grind

It's not a skill check
It's a luck check, therefore a time check

I'll bless you with some sweet visualization



I'll edit this guide if I come across interesting stuff to add