Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Speedrunner and Moderator JamesSwan here. I just wanted to take a moment to collect and share my observations based on my experience in absolutely grinding CAR recently on Easy and Hard difficulties, and share with you all the biggest time saving factors I have found after I mastered the basics of not forgetting to do a challenge room… okay that’s a lie I still forget to do a challenge room every now and then but ANYWAYS!

First things first: The BIGGEST factor I have found in essential time save is movement speed upgrades. Maxing your speed stat alone is not enough. You need to be able to get from one room to another in as little time as possible. In terms of ITEMS specifically that do this, there are three to keep an eye out for, with one at the top of your list: Hermóðr the Messenger (Helmet), Skates of Strafe (Boots), and the Go-Faster Glove (Gauntlet, MOST OPTIMAL in my experience). ANY of these in combination with a maxed speed stat can save a significant amount of time off of a run (A minute or more if my math is right), and are the key to getting faster times in most situations as they will be the most common to find and least out of your way to get.

Other Essentials for going fast: A Bank early and access to the Crypts. The Crypts has the Statue Room (Stat and possibly Mag size upgrades), The Well Room if it didn’t spawn in AG1 (Pick 1 / 4 items, usually pretty powerful items), and a guaranteed Armory spawn (Potential for Damage and Mag upgrades if needed, as well as a possible opportunity to swap starting weapon). Now, getting a bank in AG1 or AG Crypts can DEFINITELY help you go much faster despite time spent mashing coins. Those coins guarantee having the money to utilize the statue room and armory if you find them. (A Safe bet is to grab at least 80-100, you need 50 for maximum output from Statue room, and a weapon upgrade can cost up to 30. Most runners opt for 100+, though there is theoretical time to save in taking less).

However, if you want to take a MASSIVE risk, you can also theoretically run without bank since you often pick up many more coins in a CAR run than an any percent run. However, this is a much riskier strategy, and often leads to being unable to afford a weapon upgrade or maximum output from the statue room, if not both. A forced run CAN lead to great success in niche circumstances, but it is a much riskier way to run so if you choose to force attempts, more power to you.

NOW: Other things to optimize your movement speed are certain spells. Hildr’s Ultimate, Hermóðr's Speed (Able to be found rarely in Libraries when not playing Hildr) Can be used as a good alternative to some of the items listed above or can be used in conjunction with them. However it IS most likely going to be more out of your way and be more of a time loss due to the slow animations of the Library doors, and the RNG of checking for it in the first place. The same can be said for Odr’s secondary ability, the Teleport. Instantaneous transport to another location if used well for maximum movement time save, but again, no guarantee of getting it out of a library. I THINK there’s a small chance of getting them out of a Demon Shrine (Takes Keys), but I’m not certain.

Now on to the final part of this little write up. What weapons should I be using and what should I avoid? If you have Infinite Ammo, I would recommend the Haunted Revolver. The damage with max Damage stat will one-tap most enemies (Including clockwork souls), and is all around a great option. However, if you don’t have infinite or at least a VERY large magazine size, you’re going to lose time to the long reload for it, just like with weapons like the Bolt Action and Gauss Cannon. Other weapons that fall into this consideration would be the Lever Action and Standard Revolver, with their round by round reload, working you to reload the entire mag if you’re using fire to reload and can’t interrupt the animation with an ability. As for what other weapons are GREAT for these runs? Research into top runs and my own runs seem to suggest that the Garand and the SMG are Viable alternatives to the Haunted Revolver (Or in some cases Gauss Cannon)/Infinite Ammo combo, with the Garand being the most common and reliable as it has the higher potential to one-tap enemies like Clockworks. Other power weapons like the Golden Gun are certainly viable as well, just less common due to the rarity of their spawns.

At the end of the day, how you choose to run is up to you, and having fun with how you run is the most important part. I’m just a guy who had too much free time on his hands and wanted to write this up for anyone who wanted to give the category a try, or to come back to it after a while and lower their times. I hope this helps some of you out, and for other more in-depth time saves and trick demonstrations, I highly recommend you check out ch1pset’s Speedrun Tricks/Tech List Guide. It was a massive help to me when I was learning the game, and I still use most of the tricks I learned to this day.