In contemplating the requirements for figuring out the method to unlock a specific post-game mode in the game solo (with no online help), I have thought about speedrunning this game to see how quickly one can manage to reach the dev room and its associated ending from a clean saved game (so a specific variable behind the scenes can reset).

SPOILERS, even though I'm pretty sure this is the place to discuss those openly as most players of this game for speedruns have likely played through it all in minute detail, been plenty spoiled already, or don't care about no stinking spoilers.

LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS

Okay. Here goes. I'm talking about unlocking EX mode solo, not specifically running it.

But this post isn't asking roughly how long that monumental feat might take but how long it might take to get to the dev room and its ending to find the malfunctioning golem for that save file individually.

Finding the malfunctioning golem isn't necessarily the goal of this proposed speedrun category. Getting to the Dev Room Ending is the only goal so far. Although reaching the goal of a Golem% category could also be interesting, this isn't what I'm focused on today. I'm focused on what could be the most consistent version of this proposal with the least RNG to tackle.

What I want to figure out about this "Dev Room Ending" speed challenge is as follows:

What is required to create the System Erasure logo as early as possible? Wings? Precise movement and placement of tiles? Seeing the logo mural after the true ending credits? Or just knowing what the logo looks like, independent of any save file states?

Also, given the above requirements, what is the earliest reachable floor on which this logo can be created once the requirements have been met to make it? Would it be the fastest to reach the next brand floor after acquiring the wings? Would it be faster to manipulate the UI to revert to a previous floor capable of the developer logo brand once wings are acquired? Or would it be quicker, or even possible, to find a way to put the brand on an earlier/later floor without the wings at all?

Has anybody reading these forums thought about doing such a challenge before? I'm planning to do it on my stream tonight (I won't plug that here because that'd be rude) at least once just to see what my skills can bear in the game, but I'm curious what others might think about a Dev Room Ending speedrun.

An optimal dev room ending is very simple and without much room for routing, it'd basically be B007 shortcut -> do the logo in B023 (possible burdenless) and thats it. Not very interesting on its own.

Of course you could add restrictions like having to see it in the DIS ending first but that would basically make it identical to the DIS speedrun but 5 minutes longer.

As for the mimics that sounds like RNG hell, but it depends if there's interest for it.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to do the logo burdenless. Is there somewhere I can find an efficient method for doing so?

I dont have the exact steps but getting to this point is fairly simple https://imgur.com/a/BjATzon from there you can go up -> right -> place the stairs and go through the bottom path replacing the necessary tiles

Hi. With your help, I'm managing the trick with the Dev Room brand without Wings on B023 pretty well. I'll keep streaming my quest to find every golem face-dot and keep tracking my progress on how fast I can do this relative to each floor they might appear on. This is definitely a major routing challenge for my first speed game, but I like those. The initial idea for Dev% definitely seems too shallow of a challenge in comparison to Golem%. I'm still calling them both meme categories anyway.

So, in attempting to speedrun this "Golem%" category I made up on the fly, I realized that I'm not cut out to be a speedrunner. Repeat plays of a game in such quick succession just annoy me too much, even when my times have gotten better overall, and I've never enjoyed "progress by degrees" where individual seconds or frames of time saved can mean all the difference. My mind just doesn't want to concern itself with things that granular, and when I started to be on the receiving end of bad RNG multiple times in a row when trying to find unique broken mimics, the feeling got worse. I ended up just looking for the full brand online for the next step in my let's play. EX mode is frigging hard. I had no idea until playing it tonight.

This was an interesting experiment for sure, and thank you for the help in getting it started. I found all the information I wanted from these speedruns and am moving on with my casual gameplay. Good luck on your times and other pursuits. I look forward to seeing them reach their peak.