The following is meant to serve as a short-and-sweet guide for all run categories of Heartbound to help new runners get into the swing of things. As such, it will mostly focus on what to do, not why. It should be noted that this guide assumes that you've played through the route you're attempting! As such, it will only point out things that deviate from an intuitive playthrough. Unless otherwise stated, just play through the game as fast as possible!

As of writing, the following categories exist: -Tower% (Axe, Axeless): Axe may not be picked up on Axeless. Complete Tower Corp. -Barghest% (Axe, Axeless): Axe may not be picked up on Axeless. Defeat the Barghest. -Socksider%: Collect all obtainable Socks.

The following route distinctions do not currently exist but are anticipated to do so in the future, and as such will be accomodated for in this guide: -Darksider/Glowbringer -Niflheim/Muspelheim -Secret%: Collect all items which appear within Lore's room.

At the most fundamental, speedrunning Heartbound comes down to walking, talking, and a few fights. Regarding these, the most commonly executed trick is skipping text. Most find that for the best results, one should use WASD for movement and put their other hand on a mouse; when text appears, move your WASD hand to ZX and spam Z, X, Left-click, and Right-click. One can make this technique even faster by training their fingers to click faster and by staggering their presses.

From here onward, I'll lay out routing and battle info.

:::Homeworld::: Homeworld is the first section of the game, starting when you press "Continue" and ending when Lore enters one of the 3 portals leading to Animus, Tower Corp., or Jotunheim. As of writing, the fastest time for completing Homeworld is about 8 minutes. Homeworld is fairly linear, so this section won't go much into routing.

[All Routes] -Do not grab Lore's sweater when first waking up. To avoid getting it, walk to the door repeatedly. -Do not grab the Axe while outside. -Purposefully die to the Barghest on your first fight. -Before entering the Dark World, grab the sweater if you want extra security. -In the Dark World, first take the rightmost path to grab the Axe, then walk back and take the leftmost path to grab the Collar and the Bowl. Say "No" to the Axe if on Axeless.

[Socksider%] Sock locations: -Living room -Outside -The Spine -Trial Between Worlds (Room 2) -Dark World (bottom of leftmost path)

[Darksider] -In Kitchen, feed Baron the Garbage. -Outside, throw away the Viking Feast. -When Barghest 2 is out of health, hit on the final attack.

[Glowbringer] -In Kitchen, feed Baron the Viking Feast. -Outside, throw away the Garbage. -When Barghest 2 is out of health, miss on the final attack.

[Muspelheim] -Turn on Stove in the Kitchen.

[Secret%] Locations of non-Sock secrets: -Axe - pick up in Dark World -Binder's Apple - steal in The Spine -Small Dog Figurine - bookshelf in The Spine -Windup Gizmo - hidden path on Trial Between Worlds (Room 1)

[Barghest%] -Timing ends on screen fadeout after final hit/miss on Barghest.

==Battles==

[Barghest 1] You cannot Game Over to this battle, even if you die. It's actually faster to die, and by not taking the Sweater earlier, we'll be dying faster. Miss every attack, going as quickly as possible. As it turns out, the biggest pitfall here is forgetting to die.

[Barghest 2] The Barghest has 5 attacks. As for how it chooses them, imagine like it has a 5-card deck. It draws an attack, and if it runs out, it shuffles them all back together. Upon this "shuffle", it unfortunately will also spit out some dialog. Attack 1 - Pods: 6-12 "pods" will rain down. Keep the mouse at the top of the screen and click each as soon as you see it. Attack 2 - Memory: 4 eyes will descend, and you'll have to do a Simon Says-style memory game. There is a minimum of 3 things to remember, which increases each time. If you forget the order, just get hit. Attack 3 - Fireball: The Barghest will shoot a fireball at you, and you'll have to bat it back and forth. The key to this one is getting the timing just right to hit the fireball as early as possible. Attack 4 - Axe Throw: A bar with a bouncing heart in it will appear; click when it's in the highlighted area. Attack 5 - Dodge: Starts with 4 attacks and increases each time.

After defeating the Barghest, you will be given the choice between 3 portals - the leftmost leads to Tower Corp., the middle to Animus, and the rightmost to Jotunheim. As of writing, only Tower Corp. is playable.

:::Tower Corp.::: Tower Corp. was the second section of the game made available, via the December 2018 Early Access release of Heartbound. Tower Corp. begins upon Lore entering the leftmost portal, and ends upon Lore hugging Baron. Due to the large amount of dialogue-based direction given during Tower Corp., a significant part of running it is simply memorization. The below mostly lays out the order in which things should be done for minimal time waste.

[All Runs]

Directions for pre-F1: -In the Breakroom, be sure to check computer twice before using keypad. -At keypad, enter seven 1s. Entering the real code of 8913 increases "Smartliness", but takes longer, is far riskier, and messes with the job order. -Dark World should have a map soon, but for now just walk upwards and go left and right, alternating. -At end of Dark World, flip switches as to correlate to Darksider/Glowbringer status of run.

Directions for F1: -Proceed to Boardroom in Row 3R and check password on whiteboard (randomized). -Proceed to Cubicle 6A and input password. -Following this guide, the order of jobs to be completed will usually be Cafeteria, IT, Mailshroom. -Cafeteria is located in Row 2L. -In Cafeteria, try to serve all 30 customers - this ends the sequence early, saving some time. -IT is located in Row 1L. -Talk to Phish, collect Ducks (2 are in water coolers, 2 are in cubicles, 1 is in the boardroom), talk to Phish, talk to G8r, grab sticky note, talk to G8r, talk to OScar. -Mailshroom is located in Row 1R. -Mail sequence can be ended early by spamming. -Proceed to Cubicle 4C, talk to OScar, then leave. -Proceed to Elevator.

Directions for F2 (thanks Tog!): -Go to Cubicle 1A and grab Sunglasses. -Proceed to Pool in Row 3R and give Sunglasses to Joe. -Proceed to Cafe, talking to Shortstack, Whistler, and grabbing the Handbag. -Go to Vending Machine to get Key, then enter Gym and talk to Shortstack to get Bracelet. -Return to Pool and talk to Joe. -Whistle at pool, talk to Paul, then leave and re-enter Pool to obtain Locket. -Proceed North and get Chain. -Enter door, walk North and unplug OScar, walk North and confront The Boss. -Answer truthfully to all of The Boss's questions, then answer that you do not hate her.

[Tower%] -Timing ends on screen fadeout while hugging Baron.

[Socksider%] Sock locations: -Breakroom -Gym

[Secret%] Insufficient information at this time.