speedrun master strategy?

[Keno]

still trying but finish in about 40min.

PART 1
1.1 search for perfect currency shape (CCCR)
1.2 line up currency + star shape if they are far from base
1.3 lv1+3
[Bottleneck Cutter]
1.4 lv2+4
[Bottleneck Rotator]
1.5 lv5
1.6 lv6
[Bottleneck Painter]

PART 2
2.1 lv8
2.2 lv7
[Bottleneck Color Mixer]
2.3 ditch all square factory
2.4 prep white+teal color
2.5 lv10
2.6 lv9
[Bottleneck - Chaining Extractor]

PART 3
3.1 stacking area
3.2 level 11+12

https://shapezio.fandom.com/wiki/Levels

[PeterHoHK]

There's a 100% achievement guide, which includes a section on some general and specific tips for speedrunning the game, that you might want to have a look.

Without your specific setup it'd be hard to comment, so here's some general pointers:

• 1.1: Don't search for shapes at the beginning. Any time spent without producing shapes is wasted time. It's better to search for them only when needed because you'd be producing shapes in the meantime, and CCCR (or a rotated form) should be common enough that you're unlikely to lose a run because you didn't find it in time.
  
• 1.5 & 1.6: It's better to modify existing factories instead of removing and rebuilding (in case that's what you're doing). Find my comment in the linked guide for the setup I used. Of course, you'll need multiple instances of that factory (I used 4).
  
• 2.1: There shouldn't be any moment in the run where you're sitting around doing nothing, except at the end when you've built up everything and are just waiting for shapes to arrive. If you're ahead of the levels but haven't unlocked the painter yet, you may build up the "skeleton" of a painter factory, connect the input and output, and then insert the painters once you unlock it. Same goes for mixers and stackers.
  
• 2.3: There's no reason to get rid of factories unless they're getting in the way, in which case, you might want to plan ahead and place factories where they'll not be an obstacle later on.
  
• 2.4: No need to prepare white in advance because you're delaying production. Do it when needed.
  
• 2.6: Did you reuse the painters in your red circles factory?
  
• 3.1 & 3.2: Same with 2.4. Also, do level 12 first and use level 10's cyan stars for making level 11.

Also, it looks like this is your first run. It's normal you don't get under the time first try. However, you should be able to lower your time with some optimisation and practice. Good luck!

[Rubik's Newb]

It took me a couple of tries, but I managed to get the achievement.
Here is a video I made showing how I did it, though it wasn't the one that triggered the achievement. Hope this helps.
https://youtu.be/upBKvD2toAI

[elidoran]

I think we can take a small amount of time to look for the Blueprint shape and place a marker on it right before the balancer unlocks.

That's when I've finished the initial circle/square stuff near the hub and am about to extract stars and bring them to the hub. I place the extractors, then, in the moments before the balancer unlocks, I zoom out, find a blueprint shape and add the marker. Then the balancer unlocks and I zoom back into the star extraction and use the balancer.

Finding a star shape is straightforward because there's always one to the right of the hub. To the right and a little up. You'll see in some speedrunner videos they use that for the uncolored stars for upgrades, and, sometimes, use it later for the cyan stars. To deliver them faster than a belt, build a line of balancers from the extraction point straight to the left until it's above the hub, then make a turn and run balancers down to the hub to deliver two belts worth of stars. I aim for the upper left corner of the hub (the left-side-top one and the top-side-left one).

Later you can build the mega cut+stack factory of green circles and cyan stars above it by stealing the stars as input and sending the two belts of output into it (after the spot where you tap it for the stars as input...).

After trying to speedrun as best I can, and watching several others who successfully speedrun thru the first 12 levels, I think the common theme is there are only a few factories to build:

1. paint factory for circles (red, then purple, then white)

4. paint factory for blue squares (cut in half after) which later paints cyan stars to go to the hub and eventually the cut+stack factory with green circles.

3. paint factory for blueprint shapes

4. paint factory for green circles

5. three mixer factories (purple, white, and cyan)


The general order of things:

1. do the "basics" with the circles/squares near the hub

2. in the moments before the balancer unlocks, find the star to the right of the hub, place extractors, then zoom out, look for a natural blueprint shape and place a marker on it for later. The balancer will unlock, zoom into the star and continue from there. Use a long line of balancers going to the left to get above the hub and then down to the hub to deliver 2 belts of stars to the hub's upper left corner's two entry points

1. build the first paint factory with circles and red paint then output to the hub

2. build the second paint factory with squares and blue paint then output to a cutter factory to produce right-side half-squares for the hub

3. build the first mixer factory to the left of your paint factories, give it the red paint from your first factory and a new blue paint to output purple paint. Send the purple to the same first factory which was using the red so it outputs purple circles for the hub.

4. build a second mixer factory above the first mixer factory and bring in a new green paint. Once the second paint factory has produced enough blue squares switch it to stars (maybe steal them from the uncolored stars going into the hub) and steal its blue paint for your new mixer factory with the green so it outputs cyan. Send the cyan paint to the second paint factory for cyan stars to output to the hub, for now (you'll need them later with the green circles).


(The next series of steps can be taken in different order depending on your own preferences.)


5. build a third paint factory with blue and the blueprint shape

6. build a third mixer below the first two and bring a new green into it. Steal the purple paint from the first paint factory so the new mixer makes white paint and send that to the same first paint factory for white circles.

7. build a small stacker factory below the third paint factory for the blue blueprints and the white circles and output to the hub.

8. build a fourth paint factory above the others with circles and green.

9. build a mega long cut+stack factory for green circles and cyan stars and output both belts to the hub. If you build it to the right of the other factories, above the hub, above the uncolored stars balancer beltway, you can send the output into that to reach the hub.

10. Wait until level 12 is completed. You may want to add to the blueprint/circle stacker factory if it's too small to finish close to the circle/star factory in #9 above.


The paint factories can all be built to the left of the hub and the mixer factories can be built to the left of them. I think this is the exact strategy used in the comment before mine (user Rubik's Newb).

With practice you can build those factories without making the grid of balancers like Rubik's Newb does (tho, it was cool watching you do that, great job).

To do it without the grid and mass place the most pieces, try practicing:

0. if you don't have multiplace enabled then you have to hold Shift to place more than one of the stuff. I leave that enabled so I don't mention having to hold Shift in the steps below.

1. place the top row of balancers with one space in between them (8, 10, 12, however many you want to do...).

2. use the belt planner to place a belt thru the top of those balancers

3. put your mouse in between the first two balancers and press rotate until the belt curves down and out from between the balancers. Then, hold CTRL and place a bunch of them across, or, instead of the mouse, use the keyboard move keys to slide across. It's fast. Practice this for as many things as possible to increase overall speed.

4. switch to tunnel and rotate it so it's pointing down. Place it below the first downward curved belt then click+drag (hold the mouse button down) to place a row of tunnels. It will alternate between a downward and upward tunnel. That's fine. You'll get the downward ones where you want them and the others aren't in the way. If you time it properly, stop at the last downward curved belt. Then, in the next step, the tunnel is already in the upward direction for you.

5. Ensure the tunnel is in the upward direction. Hold CTRL so it doesn't switch directions as you place each upward tunnel with a click. You'll know it's the right spot because the green line shows it's going to connect to a tunnel above.

6. switch to the balancer and place the second row of them. It's easy to see where. Place one on top of each bottom tunnel (that points upward to the first balancer row) you just placed in step #5.

7. Do the same thing as steps #1 and #2 for this new row of balancers to have a belt across its top and downward curved belts across its bottom.

8. if you're doing a mixer/stacker in this factory then mass place a downward vertical belt piece next to each lower tunnel by using CTRL so it stays downward. A painter is longer so that belt piece isn't necessary.

8. For a painter, place downward painters with paint input on its left. Either use the mouse with click+drag across, or click and move with the keyboard.

9. place a curved belt piece from the tunnels to the painters the same way (use CTRL and mouse/keyboard)

10. place balancers to the side of the painter/mixer/stacker output.

11. make curved belt pieces from the painter/mixer/stacker output into the balancers using the same method you've done multiple times for this factory.

12. use the belt planner to run the final belt thru the bottom of the bottom balancers row.

The spacing of the balancers relative to each other is obvious when doing the steps this way so you don't have to eyeball them all and make sure all the rows are correct before placing the other stuff.

Back to the layout of the factories. You may try putting the cyan stars factory and the green circle factory to the right of the hub. The stars are already there to use as input. You can still build the big cut+stack factory going to the right, just make its output go to the left toward the hub (the compact mergers).

The rest is mostly practice. Go to https://www.speedrun.com/shapez.io to check out the speedrunners with the fastest times. They're impressive. As I write this, the #1 fastest run to complete level 12 was completed in 14 minutes and 24 seconds.

[VulpineMachine]

Originally posted by Rubik's Newb:

It took me a couple of tries, but I managed to get the achievement.
Here is a video I made showing how I did it, though it wasn't the one that triggered the achievement. Hope this helps.
https://youtu.be/upBKvD2toAI

So, I learned a LOT from your video in terms of efficient and compact building. Just go look at my screen shots to see the monstrosity I made to deliver the Level 11 "fish" shape. HAHA

But, I do have a question in terms of technique/hot keys or whatever. I see you speed building by dragging the mouse and building continuously, which I already know how to do. But you also seem to be able to "speed delete" which I'm not sure I really understand. And you do a couple of things with placing your belts where you seem to drag and build continuously but it keeps the orientation of the belt orthogonal to the direction you're dragging the mouse. I'm not sure how you're doing this. Would you mind explaining?

[elidoran]

Originally posted by VulpineMachine:

But, I do have a question in terms of technique/hot keys or whatever. I see you speed building by dragging the mouse and building continuously, which I already know how to do. But you also seem to be able to "speed delete" which I'm not sure I really understand. And you do a couple of things with placing your belts where you seem to drag and build continuously but it keeps the orientation of the belt orthogonal to the direction you're dragging the mouse. I'm not sure how you're doing this. Would you mind explaining?

Check out the "Keybindings" screen in Settings. There are some very helpful keybindings which do special things.

1. speed delete

Hold down the right mouse button for delete and use the keyboard WASD keys to move.

2. placing belts that don't go in the direction you're moving...

Hold CTRL to disable the "auto orientation". So, to place a belt that's going downward while you move sideways with the mouse or the keyboard move keys, you make the belt point downward via the rotation key, then, hold CTRL, and click+drag the mouse, or, hold down the left mouse button and move with the keyboard WASD keys. There are a few gotchas while doing this. If there's room it'll ignore CTRL and start placing a belt. But, if there's only room for a single belt piece to be placed then it'll place that one piece in the same orientation every time.

Also, holding ALT while placing a belt will make it go in the opposite direction it would if you were not holding ALT down.

[Testymagic]

Recently found this thread and the video really helped.
Took me about 6 tries to complete in 30 minutes after practicing the factory setup.
I had the same questions about speed deleting and holding rotation while placing.
The game doesn't really teach you that.

Side note:
I did find it easier to bind the SHIFT and CTRL keys to side buttons on my mouse.
I typically play RDFG instead of WASD so those keys are annoying to press frequently.