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Bomberman 2 DS brief level-by-level notes

These notes are based on Rife's Any% world record route (and his notes), with several tweaks and improvements. Some levels can probably be improved further, as they may make compromises on stats or skills (e.g. no Long Throw or no Short Fuse).

Changelog

Major changes in October 2025:

• Delaying B-10 until after C-10, while using the same part set for both of those levels, allowing the part set from B-9 to continue into C-1 and saving a couple equip menus
• Significantly altering some lategame levels, including using remote controlled bombs for F7, G3, G4, G5, and G6, and using regular throw instead of long throw for F8, mostly to counteract some stat sacrifices that were made in the original route (who knows if they were Rife's fault or not. I may have made some questionable tweaks in my first runs)

Major changes in September 2026:

• Using Knuckle Glove in B-06 instead of Quick Bangles, saving a couple equip menus
• Using Quick Bangles in C-02, saving a couple equip menus
• Using the part set from C-10/B-10 in C-09, saving an equip menu and ditching the awkward use of the Basic Bodygear
• Moving around many levels in Desert and Cave, as well as D-10. These changes allow getting LV21 for E-07 more easily, having a better part set for D-10, and having a smoother experience leaving Ruins (previously my route necessitated saving the parts before D-10 and reloading them after because there was no overlap in parts on either side)
  • Formerly the order was D1-D10, E1-E6, F1-F3, E7-E10, F4-F10. Now the order is D1-D9, E1-E5, D10, F1-F6, E6-E10, F7-F10
• Many changes to Desert and Cave level parts, most as a result of the big reordering
• Slight changes to Tower level parts, saving some equip menus

As of August/September 2026, I soft-launched a bunch of tweaks to the route in the form of commments beneath levels. As of mid-September, I did a proper re-route based on these comments, which route is visible below. To see the previous version of this page (with all the comments, but leaving the old route intact), go here.

Regarding language/region

The "Mission Report" screen at the end of each level (or after dying) takes a different amount of time in each language, because the title at the top of the screen must be fully printed out before the information cards appear. Entering a level is also 3 frames slower in certain languages (I'm not sure what causes this, but it may be the text at the top of the screen again. I also don't know if this number could be different depending on which zone you're in; this 3 frame number is just for Zone A. Testing other zones would be annoying because then I'd have to mess with save files).

Additionally, karne observed that the C-10 boss takes 5 full-power bombs on EU but only 4 on JP, saving a hit and reducing a bit of the RNG frustration with its "coward" phase. Bombs seem to do more damage to enemies/bosses but less damage to Bomberman, but further testing may be needed to know the cause and full effects of this.

The conclusion: if you want to save about 15 seconds from scrolling text and a couple more seconds from one of the bosses, run the game in Japanese. (German loses ~3 seconds over Japanese due to entering levels slower, and the EU version as a whole loses at least a couple seconds from having to hit the C-10 boss an extra time. EU is still fine if you're able to set the language to German, but not optimal.)

Things you should be familiar with when playing the game in a foreign language:

• Zone positions on the level select menu. Below is a table of zone names in English/Japanese/German, but learning the menu position, and which D-pad direction you can press to get between them, is more important
• Mission types in each level. Anything involving killing regular enemies can be inferred from the red arrows that appear above them as they spawn, as well as the red circles marking their position on the top screen. Other types of missions have obvious HUD elements, such as destroying energy cores or soft blocks. Anything more unique will just have to be learned by playing through the game a couple times. Alternatively, you could take notes with more detail so that you won't forget to look for a keycard in soft blocks, for example
• The appearance and menu ordering of all parts you will use in the run. Many similar ones have themes to them, such as the gear/armor pieces with colors indicating what stat they boost, but some may be harder to remember (Strong Helmet = Blue, Dangerous Helmet = Black). Some should be very obvious due to how often they are used, such as the Wireless Helmet, Throwing Gloves, and Nitro Boots. Avoiding all parts that are not in the route will keep the part list clean, and allow you to remember the ordering of them more easily. If I had infinite time I would set up icons for them to put on this webpage and in the SGL notes for whenever they need to be equipped, but that is not anywhere on the priority list

Other notes

• By A-ranking (or S-ranking) every stage in a zone and unlocking VS Mode stages, you lose about a second from the pop-up after beating the boss. However, having a bit of extra EXP to reach level thresholds when desired is better in my opinion, since this can make the gameplay easier and less reliant on "compromising" or "improvising", which you have to do when you can't equip the parts in the route. With that being said, it is entirely possible to throw intentionally on one level per zone (by taking extra damage most likely, although there are also levels that you can't really A-rank on the first pass anyway, like A-9). I'm not worrying about this right now, since a timeloss of a few seconds is not a big deal, and I don't expect it to be in the long-term future of this game, especially if bigger timesave can still happen from having better strategy or part loadouts for missions.
• I have considered using the part file function to save time equipping frequently used part sets, but I don't think there are any sets that are re-equipped often enough throughout an Any% run (they slowly evolve, and often will have minor changes to boost a stat or two). This currently only sees use when doing D-10, since it uses a high attack set, but then the next several levels use the same part set as D-9. However, I'm most likely rerouting that portion of the run slightly, partially to avoid using the save/load menu.
• It would be cool if a couple other skills/parts could see some use, such as the Boomerang, Dash Boots, Shield, SP Block Walk, and SP Nitro. All these only require minor detours, but figuring out whether it's worth said detour as well as entering the equip menu for them would take some time.
  SP Strong Fire would be cool, but it's fully out the window since the Battle Booster can't be obtained on the first playthrough of the level (at least as far as I've tried). The Beam/Laser/Wave also seem impractical, due to how late they are available and the fact that they occupy the valuable arm slot.
  • The Boomerang, being in C-01, can be obtained as soon as A-10 is done. It's a nice QoL item that can be used for trapping enemies and getting rid of Viruses. Unfortunately, adding a new arm part such as this would interfere heavily with the current route, since the arm slot is invariably occupied by something essential from B-03 onwards. Using them for singular levels where those "essential" parts can be set aside would largely be a waste of two equip menus every time, once each to put them on and take them off. Using the boomerang is also a bit awkward and slow, so ultimately I don't think going for it would be a good idea.
  • The Dash Boots are "free", being on the normal path in C-04, and same can be said for the Turbo Booster in C-09. However, Dash Boots alone are expensive (same equip cost as the Nitro Boots, which we get 4 levels later), and Turbo Booster adds more to this cost (1 more point than the most expensive body parts we currently use). Ultimately I don't think this is worth it, although it could see use in mid to late game levels where speed is significantly more important than Short Fuse (perhaps alongside Remote or Missile bombs, if stat spread and equip cost allows).
  • The Shield is a cool item that allows for some aggressive bomb setups and enemy traps, and lets you stay closer to bombs you just placed while trying to make forward progress. Obtaining the Fire Shield in D-07 is actually preferable to avoiding it, so it could easily be routed in past that point. The Perfect Shield would be a bit more annoying since it requires getting the red keycard from clearing the previous room quickly. The actual problem is that both Shields are too expensive, so there would only barely be room for them in lategame and not earlier.
  • Block Walk saves somewhere around 15 seconds in D-09. However, it seems to take at least 15 seconds to get both parts required, put them on, and take them off. I haven't found other levels where Block Walk might help, so I feel like including it is mostly a for-fun routing choice and wouldn't be an obvious timesave.
  • The Nitro skill is fully compatible with the loadout we use (Long Throw + Quick Fuse with the already-equipped Nitro Boots) but is really expensive when all parts are together.
  Some of the more generic stat-boosting parts that are easy to get could also be routed in (a couple extra used to be in Rife's original route I think), but because of the skills we use, a lot is already off the table (basically no head parts after mid-game, and no arm parts after the first several levels)

Level route / SpeedGuidesLive

The rest of this page below this section is a web version of the level notes. There is also an XML/markdown version for use with the markdown fork of the SpeedGuidesLive component for LiveSplit (using these splits), which has been updated with the 2025 improvements.

The benefit of using SGL is that once you finish each level, you can view the notes for the upcoming level in isolation, with no need to focus on one section of many, or gradually scroll through a long document. I have used it for several speedgames, and find it very helpful, which is why I am sharing it here.

As of August 2026 I am working on more tweaks to the route, currently visible as small comments underneath some level notes. When I've finished testing those changes, I'll update the markdown version as well (it is still on the October 2025 version). As part of the testing, I did a Tool-Assisted demonstration of the route (with lots of retrying missions, but making sure the gameplay isn't too too crazy). This run clocks in at a 1:34:39 (or thereabouts), which is theoretically 17 minutes faster than Rife's current world record, not that TAS and RTA can be directly compared. While this is a lot of timesave, it can't go significantly lower without any proper glitches or skips being found.

Notes