This is a guide for anyone who's wanting to start speedrunning Not For Broadcast. Be aware that finishing the game will probably take you longer than 5 hours, as some of the footage is long and linear (especially in Episode 3). Be prepared to take breaks from time to time.

The time that it takes you to finish the game heavily depends on the choices you make in the incidents, headlines, and adverts.

Rules

Generally, for all categories, it's important to know that loading times do not count. If you use the autosplitter provided in the resources, it should be able to pause during loading screens. While it has been made and uploaded by TypicallyThomas, he cannot provide support in case it doesn't work.

Difficulty doesn't matter in Any Score categories, only A+ runs. This is important to note as speedruns of this game take a lot of mental capacity, and the way the game is designed, the broadcasts are meant to be stressful, and the incidents are meant to be relaxing. This is turned upside down when running this game, so a lower difficulty allows you to relax during the broadcasts.

For A+ Only runs, you have to run at least on Broadcaster difficulty, or higher. Custom can't be allowed in these runs, as you're able to turn off challenges, which defeats the purpose.

Proof of difficulty is required in A+ Only runs.

Incident System

Of course, you can skip a lot of the incidents as some of them just show the consequences of your choices later in the game, or are just there as story filler. But most of them are important, as they will impact what incidents show up later. The more incidents that you get in between broadcasts, the longer it takes to finish the game.

-- Which Faction To Side With While Speedrunning?

In my opinion, the best faction to side with while speedrunning would be Advance. The reason for this is because there are a lot fewer incidents that trigger when siding with Advance rather than with Disrupt. DO NOT go Pro-Advance. The reason for this is that there would be special incidents that would trigger. Although there are a lot fewer special Advance incidents than Disrupt, it still adds a lot of time. Make more choices that would benefit Advance, but try to not go completely Pro-Advance (or Disrupt), as there would be special incidents that appear and add onto your time.

-- An Important Review (Day 913)

This day is basically just Boseman asking you questions about things you've done on the day of the uprising. Why am I including this day? Well, because this incident takes longer to finish depending on how many of Alan's instructions you followed during the uprising. I'd suggest doing nothing of what Alan tells you to do so that Day 913 goes by a lot quicker. Unless you're trying to get an ending where Alan is alive, just try doing as little of what he tells you to do.

-- Your Relationships With Your Family

So putting it simply, the worse your relationship is with your family members, the more incidents will appear. Why? Because there are many special incidents that appear when you have a weak relationship with your family members.

Straight away, you'd want to send Suzie on vacation so there could be no incidents with her (except for A Holiday Update - Day 365), and you'd want to transition your mother. Don't sign Charlie up for Go-Getters, and don't let him go to his friend's house. But try not to get him to side with Disrupt and die in Betterment (A Healthy Return - Day 1433). Go to work on Day 72 instead of vacationing with Sam so the "An Unwelcome Return" day doesn't trigger. These are only a couple of tips I'm giving you, but there are probably a lot more things you can do with your family to shorten your playthrough.

Headlines

There are 3 main headlines that're sort of like the side stories of the game. Rymmington-Svist, Dante's Taint, and Johnny Hamsleeves. These side stories have an abundant amount of headlines, and some are longer than others. Advance & Disrupt headlines, on the other hand, are much more linear and don't really affect your time. Other headlines, like from episode 1 and the lockdown episode, are completely linear as they are the first choices you'd make in the game.

-- The Red Carpet (The Sterility - Day 1975)

The first headlines you would get about these characters would be in episode 1. And then in episode 2 and onwards, they start to become more complicated and convoluted. Of course, it'd be nearly impossible to know which headlines can be the shortest from one storyline, and then combined with another storyline, as there is an insane amount of them in the game (288 unique headlines in total). Because of this, it isn't really worth it to keep track of all your headline choices just to save a very minuscule amount of time.

That being said, the reason you should care about the side story headlines is because the characters featured in them will appear on the red carpet on Day 1975.

There are four characters that always show up on the red carpet anyways (Blunderclatch, Lil-C, J-Zuss, and one of the company mascots excluding Helena). They all have different versions of appearances depending on how you portrayed them earlier (Blunderclatch ranting, presenting Lil-C's clothing line, censoring J-Zuss), and each one may be shorter than the other.

One of the company mascots will always appear depending on which company you favored the most by showing their adverts. Mayor of Bumley, Crazy Neil, and Sophia Rymmington. Sophia has three different versions of her appearances (Drunk Sophia, Professional Sophia, and Cult Leader Sophia), and they all depend on what headlines you chose for her and if you favored her company the most. Mayor of Bumley & Crazy Neil only depends on if you showed their adverts more often than the other.

David Wong and Ingrid will always appear on the red carpet if they escape the cave, which will only happen if you choose the correct headlines.

Johnny Hamsleeves will appear if his beer tycoon is successful, which will only happen if you choose the correct headlines.

And then there are two miscellaneous characters who appear, Steve Saxon and Big Chris. Based on my previous playthroughs, these characters only appear if there aren't any other characters to show, or because the ratings were very high when they first appeared on Day 8 (Steve is from Hey Friendship, and Big Chris is from the Tit Wank Tony interview. Both on Day 8 ).

So why does this all matter? Well, with all this information, it's pretty obvious what you can do to shorten this day. First, choose the headlines that would make the three characters (Sophia, Johnny, & Scientists) not appear on the red carpet (either by killing them or ruining their lives). Secondly, decide which version of Blunderclatch, J-Zuss, and Lil-C would be the quickest, while at the same time not ruining your run. Third, pick which company to side with so they would appear on the red carpet. Mayor of Bumley is about 20 seconds shorter than Crazy Neil, but if you're trying to become very wealthy, then you might have to think about it (Especially since adverts will play a big part in the speedrun, which will be explained later in this guide).

As I said earlier, I believe that the other two characters only appear if there aren't any other characters to show, or because the ratings were very high when they first appeared on Day 8. You could prove me wrong, but I'd suggest trying to lower your ratings when they appear.

Adverts

So this one is pretty simple. Adverts play a HUGE part in speedrunning and choosing one over another can drastically change your playtime. That's why you should only choose the shortest advert from one broadcast, and keep replaying it for all three advert breaks. If you're doing an Advance or Disrupt run, I'd also suggest playing their adverts at the last break so the game doesn't lose track of which faction you're siding with if you're making mixed choices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Not For Broadcast is a game that is definitely speedrun-able. It just takes a lot of practice and time to figure out what choices will shorten your playthrough time. This guide was just to give some general tips on some things that could help you start your speedrun.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to comment or sending a message in the Discord server! We'll be more than happy to help!