Hi there! I've been speedrunning Dead End Road for a few years now, and as of the latest version of this guide, I'm still the only runner. This is intended to share a little of what I've learned so that the run won't be as daunting for anyone else tackling it for the first time.

If you have any questions, I'm PeaceEgg on Twitch, and I'm always happy to answer questions about this run. I'd be extremely happy if someone were to take this run on and find new techniques or optimizations to destroy my records.

GENERAL ADVICE

60 FPS - From my experience, you do not want to play Dead End Road at a framerate higher than 60 FPS. At 120 FPS, the steering becomes more limited at speed, and objects on the side of the road such as railings or bushes will appear in a sudden and strange manner. At 300-400 FPS (which I've tested by dropping the graphics settings to minimal), the steering will actually be reversed at speed, the car will struggle to rotate at intersections, and it can phase through the walls on the sides sometimes. Are these high FPS issues exploitable for faster times? Perhaps, but I've had no luck in that regard.

Use a Controller - A keyboard is fine if you prefer, but as you might expect, I've found steering and acceleration input are far easier to work with on a controller. Plus, all the in-car functions are mapped to easy-to-access buttons, and a few techniques become somewhat easier.

RECOMMENDED PATH

First off, the orb ritual at the start is pretty straightforward. Move the three orbs using directional input until they are in the right place, designated by a sound clue and a faint glow. There's a way to move more than one orb at once that I'll detail later. If you don't move them right at the start, the second and third orb will sometimes start in the correct spot. It's weird and pretty RNG-heavy, like most of this game.

I recommend wishing for something short and easy to type, like EELS.

When arriving at a town at the end of each leg, you have the option to enter it by turning left, or bypassing it by turning right. I seriously didn't know bypassing towns was a thing for about a year. It's a huge time save when you have everything you need to finish a run.

In regard to navigation, there's a clear-cut optimal path from start to finish in regards to roads, and it's pretty easy to remember: When presented with an intersection and two towns, always turn left. This will get you to Dead End Road in the shortest amount of time.

My notes for both general runs are below.

Any%:

• Averiville: Always stop in here and visit the Mechanic for fuel and a supercharger upgrade. This is the only town you should stop in for Any%, IMHO.
• North Hollows: Bypass the town.
• Wolk: Bypass the town. You can also take Crow Road, but it's a little longer.
• Holrich: Bypass again. You can go to South Hope, but it's longer.
• Avarich City: On the road to here, you'll need to stop for gas if you're using my pathing. Look for a lit up station on the left side of the road, generally in the first half of this section, and come to a complete stop under the light. You'll know when you've done it right by sound cues, and this gas will not cost money (I assume we're paying by card). There's a pause manipulation trick here, as well, which I'll talk about later.
• Dead End Road: The road to here is winding and long. That's all. Remember to turn in once you reach the end of Dead End Road, as I've legitimately lost a PB sitting here for a few seconds not turning.

Good Ending:

Remember for the good ending: A Bell, Book, and Candle are needed, and at least two of them must be "good" for the good ending.

Every town will have a shop for items, and every shop will have a random selection of one good item and two crappy items.

• Averiville: Visit the Mechanic for fuel and the Pawn Shop for items. You can attempt to skip fuel with advanced strats, but I wouldn't recommend this until you're comfy with the run.
• North Hollows: Visit the Antique Shop for whatever items you're still lacking. Since two "good" items and one "crappy" item are enough to get the good ending, this is the earliest you can have what you need.
• Wolk: At this point, if you don't have all three items, you're going to lose time visiting towns and their associated pawn shops/antique stores.
• Holrich: Bypass unless RNG has been unkind and you're still lacking items.
• Avarich City: Same as above.
• Dead End Road: Nothing new to note, but if your items are good enough, you'll have a small amount of time to perform a final ritual once your reach the end and get through the cutscene dialogue. All four directional inputs are used this time, but it's pretty straightforward.

HANDLING OBSTACLES AND HAUNTINGS

Along the way to Dead End Road, you'll encounter a lot of turns, traffic, obstacles, hauntings, and other unpleasantness. I'll detail as much as I can below, but when you're within 1 km from a town, as designated on your dash, all of these will generally stop spawning and occurring.

I'd rate any obstacles by three levels: No harm, minor damage, and fatal damage. If you slow down enough, almost anything that will cause fatal damage will instead bring the car to a dead stop and cause minor damage. It's still bad, but it won't end the run. Damage is indicated by a light on your dash that starts at green and shifts to red as your car gets closer to breaking down.

Traffic: Cars and trucks will be driving in either direction, and they use either lane without rhyme or reason. It's really crucial to focus on avoiding them, as colliding with a vehicle at speed is fatal damage. Trucks often open up to reveal creepy stuff that falls out and will inflict minor damage to your car if you run it over.

You can also drive right beside the trucks that open and take minor damage from the contents that are still inside. Fun trick to keep in mind.

Obstacles: This is a variety of stuff: birds, baby carriages, potholes, boxes, pedestrians, and so on. With a few obvious exceptions that you'll learn, most of this spawns directly in front of your car regardless of where you are on the road, and will inflict minor damage. You could swerve to avoid it, but I usually plow through most of it. See the Death Boost technique later on for more on that.

Trains: The run killer, and seemingly completely random. Without finding a way out of bounds (and I don't have a reliable and fast way as of this writing), you have to stop until the train passes and the gates raise enough to let you by. Braking at speed is a scary reaction time check, so I recommend using pause manipulation to get past trains, as discussed below.

Hauntings: Most hauntings are just a nuisance and will not cause any damage to the car, although a few will impair vision. There's only one haunting you must be aware of: If a man appears in the back seat (visible in your rear view mirror) and says "TURN THAT LIGHT OFF" in a distorted voice, turn your interior light off. Failing to do so a second or two after he says this will lead to immediate death as he reaches up to grab you.

Interruptions: The more obnoxious hauntings for a speedrun, these. They will not cause any damage, but the car stops moving forward while the haunting plays out. This can be subverted with pause manipulation to allow you to keep driving, but it's still dangerous, as you're driving blind while the interruption finishes playing out.

SPEEDRUN TECHNIQUES

Here's a few of the key techniques I use to get through runs. Pause manipulation is the most important, but I think there's a lot of value in death boosting and the mysterious ghost car bug, as well.

Double Orb Movement: In the opening ritual, you can input a direction on a controller and a separate direction on the keyboard to move two orbs at once. It only saves a few seconds at most, but I find it handy, especially since the third orb seems to start in the correct position more often than usual if I do this.

Pause Manipulation: This is a must for saving time during this run. Pausing puts the car in a frozen state of not moving, but interruptions use the exact same mechanic. That means if you pause while the haunting is happening, the car will unfreeze, and you can continue to cover distance while it plays out. Use the engine note and odometer to determine the best time to unpause, as when the interruption is finishing up, it'll toggle this again, refreezing your car.

This can also be used to more easily avoid trains. The train crossing animation does not stop on pauses, so if you pause while driving full speed at a train crossing, wait for the gate to lift just enough, and unpause, you don't need to slow down. It's a time loss still, to be clear, but it's the difference between 3-5 seconds and 10-15 seconds.

Finally, when stopping for gas at a gas station, pausing and unpausing will unfreeze the car, allowing you to drive a distance away while still getting fuel. There seems to be a check in place to stop fueling the car if you drive too far away from the station using this technique, so be careful. You might have to wait a minor beat to get enough fuel to make it to the end; maybe a second at most, if I'm guessing.

Death Boost: This is essentially another form of pause manipulation, but when your car begins to smoke, it can take 4 more hits of minor damage. If you pause and unpause right after taking the final hit that would break the car, the death sequence will play out and the screen will shift to a game over prompt, but the car will continue to drive in the background at the speed it was going when you paused. It can be navigated to the end of Dead End Road without concern of obstacles or turns in this scenario, which, given how nasty the road can get, can be a significant time save. Because the car slows down to a stop upon taking too much damage, it's important to pause right after hitting whatever would have killed your car.

For timing purposes, if you reach the end using this method for Any%, time stops as soon as you see the old lady again, rather than fading to black. Everything's already faded to black, after all.

Ghost Car: This is a trick I'm not certain how to replicate, but there are certain circumstances in which the car will cease to take damage from anything and still be fully driveable. You can tell it's happened when obstacles that would cause minor damage stop hitting the car. There's no sound, and you pass through them harmlessly. The only surefire way beyond this to tell that I know of is to attempt to take fatal damage. If you can't, you're in ghost car mode. If you do take damage...well, sorry about killing your run.

If you experience this bug, continue driving fast, avoid entering towns, as they might reset the car to a corporeal state, and don't worry about slowing down for turns. Enjoy the invincibility, but with one caveat: You still need fuel. Make sure you stop for fuel as needed, because if you run out, it's game over as normal.

Thanks for reading this! Good luck getting those eels, or whatever wish your heart desires. If you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out.