Introduction Dust & Neon can be great fun to speedrun thanks to its great gunplay mechanics, but considering runs last hours it can be very daunting to get started! This guide is to help you quickly get going with what you need to focus on and do! If you have yet to beat the game, I would recommend going through the game casually to get a feel for all of its mechanics.
General Advice There are two important factors to keep in mind when doing a run. Firstly, Don't Die! This might seem obvious but death in this game is incredibly punishing, as you lose all your weapons upon death, and it can take a while to build your arsenal back up, especially in the early game. This will massively hamper your pace, and if you die on a Boss mission you'll have to wait until they appear again. So if you can, play it safe!
Secondly, keep in mind that this game is heavily RNG based thanks to the random weapons and selection of missions it gives you, so it is important to think properly about what decisions you make with the RNG the game gives you. This guide will help layout what you need to focus on when making decisions!
Clone Points Allocation This is probably the most straightforward part of a run, as there are a few perks that I consider to be the strongest and the most helpful for a speedrun! Your first goal in an All Bosses run is to max out the Kill Steal perk, as it will massively increase your survivability and allow you to run and gun by healing you as you kill enemies, which cuts down your mission time a lot! Coincidentally, it also allows you to pickup some speed and health based perks along the way!
This is the perk order you should go through as you level up: - Max out Combat Roll - Max out Mobility - Max out Massive Heart - Max out Kill Steal
Secondly, I'd recommend maxing out Last Chance, as it prevents a death which can easily happen if you aren't careful. Again, dying is the worst thing that could happen to you in a run, so you want to avoid it where you can!
From this point perk choice is down to personal preference, but I would recommend picking up the Revolver and Shotgun Ammo perks as you'll need them in the late game, as well as some extra health just in case.
Upgrade Terminal The main focus for upgrading the various terminals in the hub is to help build and maintain your arsenal for the long term so that you are able to go through later missions much more smoothly! I've found that upgrading the Gun Materializer to max first is best, as you aren't as likely to die early game, meaning you can set yourself up for free legendary weapons to kit out your arsenal with!
Once that is maxed I would recommend upgrading your Buy-Back-O-Matic, which should be unlocked at this point, up to 3 stars, allowing you to buy back every gun you would lose upon death. Buyback is expensive, but with a maxed Gun Materializer you won't be buying from The Gun Shop very much, so you will have plenty of cash leftover from bosses to recover from any deaths you may have.
From this point it is down to personal preference, though I prefer to work on upgrading The Gun Shop, as late game you will have plenty of spare cash and it gives another chance for a better weapon to appear! I don't recommend upgrading Frank's Mind Blowers and Dr. Joe's Miraculous Snake Oil as Mind Blowers and Tonics tend to not be worth buying due to them only lasting 1 or 2 missions.
Weapons, Mind Blowers and Tonics Firstly, I have yet to find a use for buying and Mind Blowers or Tonics, as they only last 1-2 Missions. Only time I would buy them is for the final boss Evil Dr Finkel, since they may give a helpful boost across the finish line!
In the early game I would recommend searching through levels for weapon chests, as they are a quick and easy way to get a much better arsenal while you upgrade your Gun Materializer. Once you've beaten the first boss, Prototype 41, I would mainly recommend just picking up guns from the Gun Materializer and The Gun Shop, but if you happen to come across an Epic or Legendary chest mid-mission then there is no harm in checking it for a better weapon.
In terms of stats I would mainly focus on Damage and Capacity, as after the first boss the Accuracy and Handling tends to get to a point where every weapon is good enough to be efficiently used without having to pace your shots. Keep in mind though that at the start your weapons will have awful Accuracy and Handling, so make sure to stay close to your enemies and pace your shots! Critical is probably the least useful stat for a speedrun since it involves more RNG, so I wouldn't both unless you plan to invest in perks that involve critical shots.
Also, avoid any 2 Capacity Revolvers, and 1 Capacity Shotguns and Rifles, as they will hamper your killing efficiency massively with how often you have to reload.
Selecting a Mission The focus for selecting missions is to aim to be able to rank up as quickly as possible. However, its important to note that EXP does not carry over between Ranks, so you're better off picking quicker missions when you only need a bit of EXP to rank up instead of longer missions. Higher difficulty missions tend to provide more enemies, therefore allowing you gain more EXP from that mission, as killing enemies is the only method of gaining EXP. I would also recommend prioritising picking ones from your 2 most recently unlocked areas, as older areas tend to give considerably less EXP.
For the first two areas, I would recommend choosing either Sabotage or Kill Targets for large EXP gains, as they provide a large amount of enemies to kill, and can be completed relatively quickly once you have gained enough EXP to rank up. Kill All Robots tends to take too long to go through, and Destroy Targets tends to not provide enough enemies in these areas, though they are a reasonable third option if you have no Sabotage or Kill Targets missions available.
For the last two areas, I would mainly recommend choosing Destroy Targets for large EXP gains, as they provide a ton of enemies to kill, and are quick and simple to follow thanks to the hallway layout. Kill Targets is still a good second option, and Kill All Robots is an OK third option. I would recommend completely avoiding Sabotage in these areas, as they provide very few enemies to kill compared to the other options.
For small EXP gains, go for Train Heist missions, as they are the quickest mission to complete while still providing enough enemies to rank up! I would recommend Train Heist missions in your more recent areas, but the early level Train Heist missions tend to suffice nicely as well.
The boss missions tend to not provide much in terms of EXP, but have giant cash rewards for beating them, so I would recommend beating the early bosses a few more times to get some backup cash in case you die.
Important Note: The final area tends to be very buggy with its missions, often soft-locking you, which forces you to have to exit and reload your save. This counts as a death, meaning you'll lose your weapons, but at this stage you should have a fully upgraded Buy-Back-O-Matic and plenty of cash, so it shouldn't be that bad. Either way, I'd recommend avoiding the following missions in the final area: Sabotage, Kill Targets, and Kill All Robots.
Playing Missions While you can play however you want to play, I do feel like a run and gun style is likely to be one of the quicker ways. Enemies have slow-ish turn speeds, so moving and dodging a lot makes it easier to avoid damage, and using ADS to keep your shots accurate will make it much easier to clean out areas of enemies.
In terms of weapon usage, the Revolver tends to be great for dealing with smaller groups of weaker enemy types thanks to the higher Capacity they tend to have, while Shotguns tend to be better for enemies with much more health or shields, as well as when you want to just clear a large group of enemies quickly. I personally reserve my Rifle for emergencies where I need to kill a chunky enemy but I'm out of loaded ammo in my shotgun. Its also great for the boss fight against Sharp Shot, as it instantly destroys the explosive barrels.
I hope this guide helps with your runs! Good Luck!
