L2-4 Barrel stages strategy?

[bdegg]

I do pretty well at the L5+ Barrel stages but I die all the time on the early game barrel stages. I don't have a problem with L1 but I rarely make it through the four screens of L2-4 barrels without losing at least one life.

The L5 Barrels aren't as much of a problem for me because they steer so easily, I get myself in trouble a lot less often. But the L2-4 Barrels don't steer reliably and I'm regularly getting myself into bad situations on girder 4 and when trying to transition up to girder 5 to grab the top hammer.

Most of the Barrel stage strategy I see and read has been heavy on L5 strategy but is there anything out there focusing on best practices for early Barrel stages?

My PB is 167K but I feel a breakthrough coming on, the biggest thing holding my scores back is not being able to get through those early barrel stages without losing at least one life, and often 2 or even 3.

Who's got some advice for me?

[Adam_Mon]

Lvl 2 - 4 barrels can be rough even after playing for years, non steering is annoying but the wild barrels that zoom accross the board are by far the most frustrating and will usually cause a restart. check out this thread.
https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=1004.0

and check out Coreys barrel videos on yt in that thread erspecially the first one, he talks about where to stand and avoid etc.
! No longer available

[bdegg]

Thanks, that looks helpful. It's heartening just knowing I'm not the only one who finds the early barrel levels much harder than the later L5+ ones.

[WCopeland]

This used to give me a lot of trouble. When I started going for the record, I discovered two safe spots where under the correct conditions you'll never get hit, but you shouldn't be touching those spots if you're just running the board for survival.

The best advice I can give is:

1.] Know going in that on L3 and L4 there's a 40% likelihood you're going to die on one of these screens.
2.] Avoid your instincts on trying to "dodge" the wild barrel and just run left. Running left is your best chance of survival.

[bdegg]

Just knowing that even the best die fairly often on the L3 & L4 barrels is making me much less frustrated when it happens to me., thanks for the advice.

New personal best yesterday, broke 220K. I need to practice the conveyor levels more, need to learn to be more patient when I don't get a free pass.

[YesAffinity]

The strategies in the L5+ guide are also helpful in the earlier stages.  Knowing the "safe" spots is probably the most helpful for staying out of sticky situations....if you don't get into them, then you don't have to get yourself out of them. 

https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=1380.0

As for conveyors, the best I can offer, altho I'm sure there is plenty of other good advice to be offered, but I say don't be afraid to backtrack and go down ladders.  I find that the firefoxes very infrequently pursue aggressively down to the bottom floor.  You sometimes get 1 that will pursue you to the bottom floor, but there is still usually a window to escape back up.  Not always, but usually.