Speed Running

[Neon Black Interactive]

So as every game does RoR2 has a speed running community, though it's currently not very fleshed out. Right now the most prevalent category is time from start to celestial portal (difficulty is up to you, but people obviously play on drizzle). Currently the prevalent strategy is to use merc, go directly to the teleporter on each stage and grab the guarenteed Preon Accumulator on stage 3 to assist with taking down bosses.

I just figured I'd open this thread if people want to discuss strategies and talk about their own speed runs. Currently the best speed run I've managed to get was about 16:30 though I didn't upload it cause I wasn't recording.

Currently the best speed run is 14:08 from start to celestial portal.


Right now my biggest piece of advice is you need to learn to weave your M! attack between other attacks on the mercenary, it's a bit hard to get used to but once you practice enough you can pull it off. Also clay dune striders in loop 2 are a disaster.

[Zeddy]

That sounds way too RNG dependent for me. Why not speedrun the prismatic trials designed for speedrunning?

[Neon Black Interactive]

Originally posted by Zeddy:

That sounds way too RNG dependent for me. Why not speedrun the prismatic trials designed for speedrunning?

Because they only last for like 2 days and there are way too many cheaters. Right now most of the posted speed runs consist of very mediocre items and the only reason the player got their time was because of how skilled they are with the merc.

The number 2 time is a great example of this:
https://www.speedrun.com/ror2/run/zp0egjxm

[Zeddy]

I agree on the short times:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/632360/discussions/2/1812044473310289766/

As for cheating, eh. People have gotten together in the discord and are posting video proofs of their runs as a countermeasure.

The base game is just as open to cheating, if not moreso. As a particularly mild example, the player could mod out any "mediocre" items and how would you be able to tell the run wasn't simply a lucky streak? They could go further and also mod out other speed hindrances such as, say, blazing wandering vagrants.

Even without cheating, it might lead to situations where players create profiles and have to be careful about not unlocking certain challenges, which sounds like a pain to me.

Prismatics are less susceptible to this because everyone can run the same trial and see that the same items, enemeis, and bosses appear.

Don't get me wrong, it's all still very admirable and I hope nobody decides to cheat for some internet glory.

[Neon Black Interactive]

Originally posted by Zeddy:

I agree on the short times:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/632360/discussions/2/1812044473310289766/

As for cheating, eh. People have gotten together in the discord and are posting video proofs of their runs as a countermeasure.

The base game is just as open to cheating, if not moreso. As a particularly mild example, the player could mod out any "mediocre" items and how would you be able to tell the run wasn't simply a lucky streak? They could go further and also mod out other speed hindrances such as, say, blazing wandering vagrants.

Even without cheating, it might lead to situations where players create profiles and have to be careful about not unlocking certain challenges, which sounds like a pain to me.

Prismatics are less susceptible to this because everyone can run the same trial and see that the same items, enemeis, and bosses appear.

Don't get me wrong, it's all still very admirable and I hope nobody decides to cheat for some internet glory.

The necessity to post the replay is a pretty solid counter measure for speedruns. As for only unlocking specific items on a profile I promise you any dedicated speedrunners will consider this a very small hurdle.

Any rogue like or rogue lite speed run category is gonna be like this. For example look at the speed runs for Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon.

[Zeddy]

Originally posted by Urilbedamned:

The necessity to post the replay is a pretty solid counter measure for speedruns. As for only unlocking specific items on a profile I promise you any dedicated speedrunners will consider this a very small hurdle.

Yeah that's true. World records have some serious grinds behind them.

Originally posted by Urilbedamned:

posted speed runs consist of very mediocre items and the only reason the player got their time was because of how skilled they are with the merc

The merc skills are very impressive, but the man started off with a goat hoof and a waxing quail, which is such a powerful mobility he no longer needs all of merc's dashing. What items do you even consider above medicore?

To me it looks like a run like this would be dominated by Artificer and restarting every time you don't get quail + some speed boost on level 1.

EDIT: Ah, no I'm wrong. The teleport timer means boss kill times are irrelevant, and merc can utiliize quail on both his jumps.

MORE EDIT: TWO BANDOLIERS? What does a not mediocre build even look like to you? 15 tesla coils?

It's also very obvious that this guy edited his savefile to have the right unlocks. Under normal circumstances, having Merc unlocked without having the challenge for looping once should be completely impossible. I don't know if that breaks any rules, but if it doesn't that's a very important factor for getting a good run and should probably be mentioned in your original post.

[Paranoia]

Originally posted by Urilbedamned:

but people obviously play on drizzle.

[Zeddy]

Guy even admits to editing his save, not that he needed to with how obvious it was.

What other cheats are allowed? Can you open the console and choose a beneficial run seed?

[RedCharge]

Mod from the ror2 speedrun.com page here. Save file editing is a common thing in roguelike games, and completely allowed. Don't know why people are so worked up over it. There's no way we could regulate save files even if it weren't allowed.

[Zeddy]

Originally posted by Red Charge:

Mod from the ror2 speedrun.com page here. Save file editing is a common thing in roguelike games, and completely allowed. Don't know why people are so worked up over it. There's no way we could regulate save files even if it weren't allowed.

I don't have an issue with it happening as much as it not being the first thing that's mentioned because it's far and large the most important factor. Especially since it's possible (and, indeed, optimal) to edit the save file into a state it would otherwise be impossible for the game to exist in.

What other cheats are allowed? Can you open the console and choose a beneficial run seed, or will runners need to resort to pretending that they don't do that and edit it out of their recording?

[RedCharge]

"cheats"

[Zeddy]

Originally posted by Red Charge:

"cheats"

Console commands yes/no?

[RedCharge]

Of course not. That's cheating.

[Zeddy]

Ah, so be sneaky about console commands then.

[Tizona]

Would also like to add that command will almost certainly be a thing in the future, which will cut out way more item rng than save file editing. Which is the only thing it’s used for right now aside from lunar coins. The file also really doesn’t improve your odds by that much in my experience. My CE Being played on my main file with everything unlocked as an example. I can assure you every runner can get their current time without the editing, this way just makes it slightly more convenient.

[Zeddy]

I guess casual runs of this category is about to become pretty popular.