It is important first to note that there are no glitches currently used in the speedrun, as the few known are all detrimental. For example, there is an incredibly low chance that a door will lead to nothing, causing the game to softlock. In 1.0.88, going through a door while holding a Major Module can sometimes cause a graphical glitch with the UI that does not affect gameplay. There are no resource generation, clips, stat alterations or item spawning glitches thus discovered.
Due to the random nature of the game, there is neither a pre-set path to follow nor RNG manipulation (without altering game files). Instead this guide will contain general tricks to use to maximise efficiency, my personal tier list, a general plan for Escape Pod, and general overview of heroes and Pod differences.
Earlygame: The first few floors. Focus on opening as many doors as possible, researching Major Modules (Food, Science, Industry, and Emergency Generator) and the stronger Minor Modules (eg Seblaster, Smoking Gun, KIP Cannon). Only build 2 Major Modules on floor 1, Industry then Science. Otherwise, keep to a soft limit of 4. There will be at least one Artefact to research from on every floor, so feel free to destroy them on Floor 2 or 3 to build over them.
Midgame: Use the same tactics, focusing on upgrading the Minor Modules and getting Emergency Generator. Avoid building any Emergency Generators at this point as they are very costly – try to stockpile Industry to build them later on. Save some Food for lategame healing also. After getting the required Modules, stockpile Science so that you can refresh you heroes’ abilities, allowing you to have them on permanently in fights.
Lategame: Floors 9-12 are very nasty. Use Emergency Generators and weaker heroes to keep as many rooms as possible lit up. Expect to be very underlevelled for this point, so use upgraded Minor Modules to defend from large waves mostly. You will have very little Dust. Pray to RNGesus for a swift exit.
Tactics (in no particular order): Whenever you open a door, if the previous room is unlit and has no hero in it, send the hero you just opened the door with back – there is enough time such that monsters will not spawn in that room now. Do this even if you find something in the new room, unless you find a hero/merchant, as monsters will never spawn with this discovery.
Choose one direction to explore and go all the way. Opening doors in multiple directions is fine in earlygame, but suicidal later on. Set up chokepoints on larger crossroads. Fortify these should you have to explore in a different direction.
Combine Tear Gas/Neurostun with Seblasters and a defensive hero such as Gork, Elise or Joleri to set up these chokepoints. Consider KIP Cannons or Smoking Guns for the floors with the giant crystalline enemies, as they are fewer yet tougher.
Use a taunt (Hipster Scarf, Ahhhhrmani Suit or Gork’s active) to hold these chokepoints. Use ‘roomjumping’ [] for virtually infinite defense. Note this is far less effective against exploding enemies.
Hold on to some expensive-looking items even if you can't use them (such as JPad) - selling them to a Dust merchant can instantly win you a floor. If you have an extremely strong defence (such as with Red Plume or roomjumping) then you can use Skulker (from Aftershave, Golgy’s active or Pat’s active) to rapidly open doors and aggro a lot of mobs. This is very fast, but only do it if your defence can handle any quantity of monsters.
Use the Dust Factories wisely. They are generally not needed early on. There may be something like a 70-80% chance to get the dust, but the chance of destroying all the slots in the room can be killer. Destroy all Cryo Capsules unless you are in excess of Industry and need Food. They are pretty weak.
Use a character with Operate to Operate on a Major Module whenever they are not needed – this significantly boosts your economy. When in doubt on what to get, Operate on Industry.
Shop and Mechanical Pal can be a very strong combo – having them both in a room guarantees 1 Dust per door-open, which is good economy for the last few floors. Having a hero operate gives (Wit/10) Dust rounded up. However, you need to discover a Merchant on the floor for this to work.
Tactical HUD and LAN Module are generally not worth using, as are Tesla, Prisoner Prod, Bio-Organic, Pepper Spray, Viral Injector, Holohero, Autodoc, Dust Field and Suppressive Firebot Modules.
Before taking the crystal, set up your other heroes (unless they are very weak) to open doors. Have them open the doors (use pause to coordinate this) and the moment you see Industry come in, pick up the crystal. This gives you many more resources completely freely.
Disable Deep-Freeze and Austrailium DLC. The additions through these are generally too weak to be worth it.
DON’T USE SARA WITH GORK EVER. DON’T USE MAX WITH TROE, JOSH AND MORMISH ALL TOGETHER EITHER.
Expend Science to refresh the following moves; this tactic is very overpowered: Red Plume (Skroig) – Infinite defence and offence in a single room. Costs 9 Science. Cooking With Gas (Chef Nanor) – Deals 160 damage to all enemies on the room, one-shotting most monsters until floor 6. Also grants bonus dust. Costs 9 Science. Crawler (Pat Bates, Golgy Phurtiver) – Makes them virtually invincible for 10 seconds. Costs 6 Science. Dust Drainer (Esseb Tarosh) – Doubles Dust drop chance of monsters. Invaluable. War Profiteer (Warden Mormish) – Doubles Dust drop chance of monsters. Invaluable. Paramedic [on Infirmary Pod] (Nurse Deena Ratchet/Ayairi) – A cheap source of healing.
Note that the following tier list is for speedrunning purposes, not explicitly for casual playthroughs, though the two often overlap. (Personal) Tier List for Escape Pod:
Top [the characters I always want to see]: Ken Massoqui - stupid amounts of burst damage, can easily reach 200DPS without actives on. Chef Nanor - somewhat tanky, cooking with gas while running from room to room is op especially with Aftershave. Extra dust is nice. Skroig - really good innate damage, but also really needs a spear. Red Plume may be the best active ability in the game, making you near-invincible and having monsters kill themselves. Esseb Tarosh - generally just used as a ward for unlit rooms, Dust Drainer is amazing with Cooking With Gas. Scamper makes him a great crystal runner. Often I find I have one character who is a bit Warden Mormish - use as a ward or operator, War Profiteer is great dust income. Armchair General has a huge impact defending choke points with Skroig or Ken. Max O'Kane - he blinds you with science. Decent dust generation later on, good operator early on.
Mid [the characters that are good enough to take, yet may dismiss if better come along]: Golgy Phurtiver - can be used to take out the RNG of finding Aftershave. Good crystal runner. Josh N'tello - just like Mormish, only lacking in dust generation. Nurse Deena Ratchet - actually not bottom tier in a speedrun. Operate is good, Paramedic is good, Scamper is good. Very average. Hikensha - Endless Expert is still good, good DPS, operate. Very average. May be top tier if she had Scamper. Kaspar Harab - generally worse than Deena, but Ubercharge can be a good active if not using Skroig. Troe Pekenyo - decent DPS. Scamper is useful with crystal, Kneecapper is good. Gork "Butcher" Koroser - decent tank. Dell Bradford - decent operator. Skulker is useful. Misha cherny - decent tank/DPS. Opbot DV8 - decent operator. Rakya Pulmoni - decent operator.
Bottom [the characters that are objectively worse than all the others; only take temporarily if at all]: Sara Numas - worse Golgy. Too squishy, melee, needs micromanaging. Elise Ness - worse Gork, lacking Taunt. Way too slow. Joleri - worse Hikensha. Dust is crucial. Can tank for days but there are better ways to do this. Pat Bates - worse Skroig. How do you even use this guy?? Can be used as a replacement Red Plume/Ubercharge in a pinch but only if desperate. Mizi Kurtiz - worse Ken/Troe/Skroig, but you can have her stop with her active in a corridor, granting 10 seconds of invulnerability without needing to micromanage. Good solo in Refreezerator, however, not needing a weapon. Kreyang - just doesn't do anything. I guess Endless Expert is alright, but just a worse Max. Ayairi Whairydd - no.
Major Pod Differences (to Escape Pod):
Infirmary Pod: Focus a bit more on Food than usual. Deena/Kaspar/Ayairi can be good due to Paramedic’s healing. You are considerably tankier in this mode, but most principles carry over. Most of the bonus time save on this comes from managing the Drug items ingame.
Library Pod: Chef Nanor is a must-have. Cooking With Gas is the best AoE active in the game. It is unaffected by the hero penalty of this Pod. Use an Operator for insane economy and spend it on Emergency Generators and Minor Modules.
Drill Pod: I don’t know yet. A speedrun would be to floor 24, and more like a quick playthrough than anything else.
Armory Pod: The fastest by a long shot, the game becomes incredibly intense. Forget stockpiling anything, just place down Major Modules quickly and exit every floor ASAP. Use Max O’Kane to fuel spamming the actives of skroig and/or Nanor.
Refreezerator: I don’t know. I can’t even complete this bloody mode, let alone speedrun it!
Sanitary Pod: Close the game and do something else. This is really really really really really really really really really really really really hard. Skroig and Max or bust.
