Switching To Heat Man For Pit Deaths

Several points in the speedrun, notably the intentional deaths in the Crash and Wood Man zips, switch to Heat Man's weapon for seemingly no reason and begin charging it before falling into a pit.

Mega Man 2's "death respawn timer" uses the sound effect of Mega Man dying - when the explosion sound ends, it respawns Mega Man. "Releasing" charged Heat Man overrides the sound effect, "ending" the timer.

It is faster to switch to Heat, charge heat, and then after dying RELEASE B to fire the charge, than waiting for the normal death timer.

This is true for any pit death in the game. You might also see this in Bubble or Air Man's stage when the runner wants an intentional Game Over in a no-reset scenario.