Some guys on Twitch a couple nights ago decided to do a run of only the Horde Wave levels so I decided to try that as my first speedrun, and then I decided to do regular story mode too.

I just did a run and I came in about 7 minutes behind the record, even though I only had a minute more on 6-6.

I finally realized the record holders were somehow skipping the instruction screens. Just how do you do that?

Finally figured out a button combination and timing that did it...

Thousands of hours in and I had no idea that existed. You'd think I would have done it enough by accident to notice....oh well.

Don't you just hold the skip button (etc. X on PS4) right before the level screen fades in to not lose time on it ?

It's the "pick up" button right after the preview screen bar fills and it fades out. Took me a while to figure out which button and when exactly. Easy to miss.