How to Beat Sans: A Practice Plan for Bad Time Simulator

People who beat Sans do not have faster hands than people who do not. They stopped restarting the whole fight and learned it in pieces. Bad Time Simulator's Practice mode exists for exactly this, and the plan below is the order that works.

Step 1: play Normal three times

Not to win. Play the full fight three times so you know where you die and what the music sounds like when it happens. Write down (really) the attack that ends each run. That list is your syllabus.

Step 2: drill the killer in Practice

Open Practice, pick the attack from your list, and run it until you clear it five times in a row. Not five out of ten; five straight. If you cannot get one clean run, slow down: watch the attack once without touching the keys and notice where the safe space is. Then go back to five in a row.

Step 3: chain two attacks

Clearing an attack from a standing start is easier than clearing it after the one before, because the previous attack leaves your heart in the wrong place. Use Custom mode to put the killer after the attack that precedes it in Normal, and drill the pair. This is the step most people skip, and it is why a "learned" attack still kills them in the real fight.

Step 4: go back to Normal

You will now die somewhere new. Good: that is progress, and the new death goes on the list. Repeat steps 2 and 3. A full clear is usually six or seven of these loops away from the first run, which is an evening or two, not a month.

Habits that make every step faster

• Tap, never hold. Holding a direction moves the heart further than any gap needs. Most deaths are overshoots.
• Hands off for blue. Say it out loud if you have to. Light-blue bones kill motion, not position.
• Heal after the drain stops. Karmic Retribution keeps draining purple health for a few seconds after a hit. Healing during the drain wastes part of the item.
• Use fullscreen. The battle box is small at the default size, and a bone that is one pixel wide at 480p is four pixels wide at 1080p.
• Sound on. Megalovania is the timer. The attacks change on the musical phrase, and you will know an attack is coming from the bar before it appears.

The last thing

The special attack, where nothing happens, is a patience test. If you have got that far you have already done the hard part. Wait, end your turn, and treat the final gauntlet as a victory lap with teeth.