I've encountered the same bug, I think it happens if you're playing on one save, then switch to another save, the IGT counts all the time you have spent this session plus the IGT of the first save.

For example, I encountered this when I had just finished my first playthrough at about 40 hours playtime, and then immediately started a new save to test an idea I had. When I saved that new slot, it showed the time from my first playthrough plus the hour or so I had actually spent playing the new save slot.

So far the only work-around I know of, that fortunately does work every time, is to quit to desktop before starting a new save.

And yeah @ Talon, it isn't uncommon for a game to be officially judged by IGT but runners still use an external timer with splits to help themselves identify what sections they can save time on. The splits will be consistent with their own system so it's still useful, it just isn't the method of judgement for leaderboards.

I hadn't heard of the anchor dupe yet!

Unfortunately, the minimum trip count is not dictated by how much energy you can get, it is literally the actual bare minimum for how many times you must venture out from the Garage. 12 story missions that dictate a specific area you must travel to, and 3 others that let you go wherever you want and return to the Garage by a Gateway.

I confirmed it yesterday that you MUST craft the LIM Shield otherwise you cannot progress in the mission to cross the Old Wall, a certain gate will not open unless you have it equipped.

Even still, this brings the minimum amount of Energy you need to complete the game to 2.5 Stable and 3.0 Unstable Energy, and you'll have WAY MORE than that even if you only get the bare minimum to use a Gateway in each trip.

Anchor Dupe could still be useful in certain sections, like in the first trip where you want 3.8 Stable Energy in order to unlock the Antenna (required for storyline), the Matter Deconstructor, and Offroad Tires all right away.

If anybody finds a way to dupe ThermoSap, or any other resources, that would be FAR more useful since ThermoSap is a MAJOR bottleneck. You need 28 of it at the bare minimum to craft the LIM Shield (again, required to finish the story) and 42 Sap to craft the Turbolight Engine, and getting that early would be HUGE.

===== Useful Tech / Glitches =====

Floor Clipping - found by ckixy

(expand later)

Mousewheel Jumping / bhop

(expand later)

(btw I'll mostly be adding to this thread via editing the existing posts which doesn't bump the thread, so check back here for any additions!)

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned yet - should we use the in-game timer or an external timer?

Using in-game timer has the benefit of removing loading times from consideration, so saving time by having a better PC won't be a thing.

I'm not sure if the option to pause the game while in menus also stops the in-game timer, though. If it does, then using that option makes fast menuing worthless.

Basically title.

To do it, bind Jump to a MWheel direction (I used MWheel Up since my MWheel Down is bound to Crouch for Floor Clipping), then sprint, jump, hold Crouch while in the air, and use your MWheel Jump as you get close to the ground to bounce.

If you have speedrun Half-Life 2, this will feel very similar to the input needed for Accelerated Back-Hopping.

You MUST have Crouch set to Hold and not Toggle for this to work. If you have Crouch set to Toggle, you'll just stand up as soon as you jump. I also found I was no longer able to Floor Clip with Toggle Crouch, so you probably don't want to use it, anyway.

Also, you CAN preserve momentum by jumping as soon as you hit the ground. I confirmed this in the on-foot sequence near the story end. The Jump-Pad-like things that launch you from one section to the next move you at higher speeds than just sprinting. By crouching and using MWheel Jump you can preserve this momentum. With this being the case, it might be possible to build up speed using airstrafe or similar tech.

I do feel I need to note that keeping this going feels really tricky compared to other games with similar movement tech - like ABH/ASH in HL2 - particularly when trying to move uphill, even just slight slopes. It's possible this is just a skill issue, though, and I'll keep practicing it.

It is also possible to scroll too quickly and you end up just jittering and losing speed. I have a Logitech G903 mouse that allows you to unlock the mousewheel and let it spin freely. Trying to just unlock the wheel and spin it rapidly resulted in the jittering I mentioned.

Definitely some things to be considered. Disabling windshield acid splash almost totally negates the danger of Burp Bunnies in particular. I'm not sure if there are other sources of it because in my casual playthrough, those are the only things that caused it, but I'm pretty sure I never collided with a Rotten Egg or took a direct hit from other sources of acid.

Brighter Nights I'm a bit on the fence about. It does reduce the need for a light source during normal nights but it does nothing for zones with the Eerie Darkness condition. Going back to my casual playthrough which was done on all defaults, the most annoying thing about night time was trying to find where all the scraps dropped, which High Vis Loot would negate, anyway.

100% would be a marathon run until some major strats become available. There's so much RNG involved with what shows up, not just in terms of things you can scan, either. 100% Logbook would include all the tapes, all the lore bits you find in the world, and all the scans. Yeesh. My hat is off to anyone who wants to run it, but I'm going to pass on that.

I had my first real attempt at an Any% Unrestricted run and managed 5h 30m 20s by in-game timer. Once the leaderboards go live I'll start streaming runs. I'm pretty sure I can do sub-5h with my current strats, I had an entire wasted trip because the destination didn't link up how I thought it would and there was some time waste on unnecessary looting.

Really interested to see how quickly and how far we can drive down these run times.

Also, later today I'll be continuing experiments with tires to see if I can do anything interesting. It's common knowledge that circles are the devil's geometry, after all.

How would one do this with a controller, is it only possible with a mouse?

It might be possible with a controller and REALLY fast hands if you go into the options and set Crouch to hold instead of toggle.

By default, the options are set so that crouch, sprint, and zoom are toggles on controller and hold on kb/m but you can change each to hold for both, kb/m only, controller only (default), or none.

What does a save reload do on top of the arc doc room?

I'll have to check this.

I did find a way to grab the Arc Doc, though! If you get on top of the Arc Doc room, there's a little closet on the wall facing the room with the Fabricator. The floor of this closet is fake, you will fall straight through. BUT if you airstrafe back toward the Arc Doc room after falling off the top of it, you can land on a small ledge. From there, by using jump and crouch (DON'T spam crouch) you can headbug through the wall enough to grab the Arc Doc. The Arc Doc is NOT set to hands-only, and if you clear the top section of your backpack you can just tap E to pick it up to your inventory. Once you get it, you can simply fall down OOB to warp back to the car and avoid a save/load.

=== The Route ===

(To be added)

Actual route still to be added, likely will see further optimizations after posting. For now, some notes:

15 trips appears to be the absolute minimum

With the destinations I chose, the only time you encounter The Scorch, the Mid-Zone area type that contains ThermoSap Compressors, is when you go to Red Meadow. If you wish to craft the Turbolight Engine, it is VERY IMPORTANT to check how much ThermoSap you have before embarking on that run and ensure you farm enough to total 70 ThermoSap - 42 is required to craft the Engine and 28 to craft the LIM Shield, required for The Deep Zone Crossing

=== Best / Notable Material Sources ===

Bulbs

• Refined : [add recipe]
• Using the Hand-Vac on lit Sodium Vapor lights, guaranteed 1 per light

Gears

• Refined : 3 Scrap Metal [verify recipe]
• Random chance to drop from scrapping tires

LIM Magnet

• Magnetizers found in the Deep Zone turn Scrap Metal to LIM Magnets at differing ratios, usually ~ 3:1

Rubber

• Scrapping any tires gives some, but Offroad Tires found randomly attached to Squires, Investigators, Fuel Tankers and Tow Trucks seems to give the most.

Scrap Metal

• It's everywhere. You should be swimming in it. Almost everything you scrap gives some.
• You will need a substantial amount for making LIM Magnets in the Deep Zone.

Steel Plate

• Refined : [add recipe]
• Scrapping Steel Doors / Panels / Bumpers

Thermosap Crystals

• Tourists rarely drop these. Throw scrap metal at a cluster of Tourists to start a chain reaction of explosions for a decent early source of Sap.
• Scrapping Armored Doors / Armored Panels found on Squires and Investigators commonly drops one, not guaranteed.
• Thermosap Compressors found in The Scorch areas of the Mid-Zone give ~10, Impact Hammer required

(To be expanded)

=== MANDATORY Research / Upgrades and Costs ===

--Scanning Antenna--

When : After Trip 1, "Into the Wilderness"

Cost

• 1 Broadcast Transmitter (Unique, obtained from Radio Tower in 1st Trip)
• 5 Plasma (Required for objective in 1st Trip)
• 40 Scrap Metal
• 1.0 Stable Energy

--LIM Shield--

When : After Trip 10, "The Deep Zone Crossing"

Cost

• 6 Scrap Metal
• 10 Plasma
• 2 Circuit Board
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal

The blueprint is provided, there is no Energy cost to research the LIM Shield itself. However, the Advanced Workbench is required to craft it, which has several pre-requisites.

Pre-Requisites and Costs

Matter Deconstructor (path to Advanced Workbench)

• 35 Scrap Metal
• 4 Gear
• 4 Electronics
• 0.8 Stable Energy

Matter Regenerator (path to Advanced Workbench)

• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 6 Chemicals
• 0.3 Stable Energy

Advanced Workbench

• 4 Steel Sheet
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 7 Electronics
• 10 Copper Wire
• 3.0 Unstable Energy

Steel Sheet (pre-requisite for Advanced Workbench)

• 1 Fabric
• 0.2 Stable Energy

Bulb (path to Steel Sheet)

• 1 Fabric
• 0.2 Stable Energy

Total Costs (all pre-reqs + crafting LIM Shield)

• 6 Chemicals
• 2 Circuit Board
• 10 Copper Wire
• 11 Electronics
• 2 Fabric
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 4 Gear
• 10 Plasma
• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 41 Scrap Metal
• 4 Steel Sheet
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal
• 1.5 Stable Energy
• 3 Unstable Energy

===== Total Minimum Required Farm to Complete the Game =====

• 1 Broadcast Transmitter (Unique, obtained in 1st Trip)
• 6 Chemicals
• 2 Circuit Board
• 10 Copper Wire
• 11 Electronics
• 2 Fabric
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 4 Gear
• 15 Plasma
• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 81 Scrap Metal
• 4 Steel Sheet
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal
• 2.5 Stable Energy
• 3 Unstable Energy

Heya, thought I'd get a routing / theory-crafting / general speed tips thread going.

So far I don't have so much of a "route" as a general game plan. Some of these things are going to be REAL obvious to anyone who has done speedruns before, but still included as reminders.

Some of these can be ignored for any% unrestricted where you don't need to care about damage, fuel, battery, etc

• Do objectives immediately instead of exploring / farming
• If no marked locations for Story missions, explore toward known Story locations
• Minimize time spent scrapping / looting - know what you need and don't farm beyond that.
• Also, learn the best ways to farm the things you do need.
• Health and Durability are resources - spend them wisely.
• The only HP that really matters is the last one.
• Minimize research beyond what is needed to progress the story

Research to rush:

• Offroad Tires - Far better than Spares, generally more useful than Summer Tires, you can even research these after the first mission.
• Matter Deconstructor - Need for Dumpster Pearls
• Liberator - This can get Armored Doors and Panels from Squires far earlier than research. They need 5 Sap to craft, feasibly farmed from Tourists.
• Hand-Vac - Far quicker for picking up scraps, NEED for Marsh Eggs etc
• Turbolight Engine - B/c the Carbureted Engine is WEAK. Don't bother farming 40 Sap from Tourists, probably won't be able to craft this until Mid-Zone.

Research to consider:

• LIMpulse Emitter - Keeping grabby Anomalies and Bunnies off your car can come in clutch.
• Resource Radar - Locates resources but also valuable vehicles like Squires, Investigators, Box Trucks and Fuel Tankers. I slept on this until late in my normal playthrough.
• Any Extra Fuel Capacity - Fewer refueling stops on the road means less time spent refueling.
• Any Passive Battery Recharge - Seems more efficient than crafting jumpers in the long run, but if you aren't using abilities or leaving your headlights on, maybe skip this. It DID prove very useful on the mission with the LIM Shield, though
• Storage additions seem like a waste but I need to see how painful it is when trying to finish a run without any. Maybe useful for storing extra parts picked up w/ Liberator
• Re-roll / Junction Skip - pretty-late-game but obviously useful, gets better with antenna upgrades for more charges
• Matter Regenerator - Parts stored here will be fully repaired after returning from a run. Cuts down on mats spent on Putty (chemicals!) or fixing status effects.

--- TO-DO LIST ---

Actual Routing Stuff

• Minimum mats needed for mandatory research / upgrades at each stage
• Best spots to go when no story objective is marked
• Best farming methods for needed mats
• Is it worth it to grab Anchors beyond what's needed for the gate to speed up research?

Ongoing

• Document useful glitches / movement tech / skips

It seems that crouching may cancel height?

It does seem that way. At the very least it sends you downward faster when you crouch-spam. I noticed when clipping through the floor, if I unlocked my mousewheel and gave it a hard spin I would fall faster than if I didn't.

I was doing some other experimentation with floor clipping, too. I was having trouble re-creating your method of grabbing the Arc Doc so I was looking for other ways and managed to get through the roof of the shop above the room where the Arc Doc is by using a door and a bumper, arranged in a sort of a wedge. If you arrange them in a way to sort of 'funnel' you downward, you can clip through.

Unfortunately you can't just get all the way into the room. There is a gap between the roof and the ceiling of the room, and standing on top of the room stops you from going further. While you're in this space you cannot jump or crouch. I'll try and grab a clip after I get off work.

The more important discovery I think is that car parts, and probably other movable objects with physics can affect how you clip.

Oh this is very interesting. I was messing with car warp yesterday for a while but I never managed to get it half-clipped into other objects or terrain to launch it like this!

For the parts where you're going with the car, are you just tapping E on the door right before the teleport?

I figure, as svxe said, any% is a must-have.

If the objective is to complete the game as fast as possible, any game settings should be allowed. True any% should allow any strat that doesn't involve modding the game, and even that has some notable exceptions in other games like UPS 'speedometers' and certain texture/sound replacements.

I used to run Half-Life 2 and there were a lot of things that just needed to be decided on a case-by-case basis by the community. Like Save Deletion or running an Unpack version rather than the Steam version because the Unpack had much, much faster loading times - or even the fact you needed to use the console to set your binds.

Even though I probably wouldn't run it with the 'easiest' difficulty settings as, like ckixy said, there is the option to simply turn off damage entirely. Whether that is actually beneficial or not still remains to be seen, since there could be a damage boost or similar tech that is yet to be discovered.

I definitely think "any%, default D/R/M" standing for Difficulty / Realism / Modifiers should be a category and it is the category I'd be most likely to run. Even though I really like the "Equipped Part Swapping" option under Realism for the QOL factor, I'd give that up in favor of keeping to the category.

I would just say default Gameplay settings but that would imply you can't change the Language or FOV either, since those settings are on that menu, as well.

I just had a look through the settings and it doesn't appear anything under the Accessibility menu would change things much.

Nice find!

I've also noticed that it seems like sprint-jumping is faster than just sprint, does the airstrafe seem to help or is that just habit?

Nice find! It seems like you need something that you can get stuck on to successfully clip through the floor. The warp-to-car behavior is something I didn't expect, but it makes sense if the devs did that so if a player accidentally clipped through the floor it doesn't just softlock the game.

I'm still trying to find some sort of on-foot speed tech, so far haven't found anything except it seems like you go slightly faster by jumping, but there's a slight timing to it - after you land, you have like two steps where it looks like you go a little faster but I'm not sure if this is real speed or just camera trickery.