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I'm currently gunning for the speed-run achievements in Alien Swarm, and as a result every second counts for the level completion time. It occured to me that it might be helpful to get through the hacking sections as fast as possible if one activated adrenaline immediately before starting the hack; however, this would only be useful for the level time if adrenaline slowed down the clock counting the level completion time as well as everthing else.

Can anyone confirm that adrenaline slows down the level completion time clock, or is this idea pretty much useless?

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    I have all the speedrun achievements, and adrenaline was the key to most of them.
    – Joren
    Commented Sep 26, 2010 at 11:53

1 Answer 1

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Adrenaline slows down both the level completion time clock and game-time (they are the same thing in Alien Swarm).

I played Landing Bay on Normal difficulty to check. The first Landing Bay run had a completion time of 2:18 with no adrenaline. Second Landing Bay run had a completion time of 1:43 using 9 adrenaline packs. If adrenaline did not slow down level completion time then the second run would have been 3 minutes (that was real-time) instead of 1:43.

In case you didn't know, a number of wire hacks (with ones in Deima Surface Bridge being an exception) can be bypassed by cutting down doors with a pair of chainsaws. This has saved me plenty of time on speed runs :) Unfortunately computer hacks can't be bypassed.

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    If anyone can get a group of four going on this it would be better than my test. No friends were on steam so I tested off-line on first mission (which I only just found out is twice as long as the first mission on-line). Results are that adrenaline seems to slow down game clock, as well as player deaths and events like the elevator (all seem to use the same mechanic) but this is much better tested with four Steam friends on the first mission. I'm on vacation too this weekend so I can't try again yet :( sorry to disappoint, but I will try again on Monday when some friends are on.
    – Sadly Not
    Commented Jul 30, 2010 at 13:06
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    Did the test, results posted above :D IT WORKS! Quite fantastically, actually. Improved my average run-time by 30 seconds.
    – Sadly Not
    Commented Aug 3, 2010 at 3:41
  • Thanks so much man! :DDDD Now I can get working on these speedrun achievements :3
    – Mana
    Commented Aug 3, 2010 at 22:09

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