The Quickest Way To Complete The Story

How to complete the story (collect all the diary pages, audio recordings, and clues) in the game as fast as possible.

Collecting Items and The Passage of Time

"Collectibles" in the game are the diary pages, audio recordings, and clues. You will first gather all the diary pages, then all the audio recordings, and then finally you'll begin gathering all the clues.

Diary pages and audio recordings can be collected during runs. You will only encounter one collectible during each run. Pick up the item from the ground when you see a blue light and hear a cell phone ring.

Clues CANNOT be picked up during runs.

Diary pages, recordings, and clues can all be collected as mission rewards. Mission rewards are the only way to collect clues. When you view the map, the mission will show a small box icon if a reward will be granted. The reward is random and can be either a collectible or rations.

You advance the days by completing missions. Each mission advances the counter to the next day by one.

Only one mission can be selected at a time, so open the map and pick the one with goal you prefer!

You can advance the story the fastest by:
1) Choosing missions that give a reward, if they are available.
2) Once you have achieved that mission's goal AND picked up the one collectible (diary page or audio recording) or missed picking it up* - or if all the pages and recordings are already collected and you only need clues - let your character "die" and end that run.

If you have good reflexes, that means while you're gathering pages and recordings, you can earn 1-2 collectibles every run as long as you hit your mission goals! When you're gathering clues, you will only earn 0-1 collectible every run, so progress slows significantly.

There's no reason to go farther in a run once you've reached your mission's goal unless you want to try for a high score, get more rations by beating more "bosses", or if you're serious about getting the Mass Creation achievement (which requires knocking over 10,000 side and overhead objects). But, long runs are easier and more fun once you've unlocked all the weapons and starting perks, so I recommend focusing on progressing the days and completing as many missions as possible before you try to get high scores or farm for rations for the final weapon upgrades. (Character outfits do not offer any benefit to the game and are purely aesthetic, so you do not need to spend your rations on them to beat the game or get any achievement.)

There are a few special missions for some characters which also advance the story, and it will be very obvious on the map when those are available.

I hope this was helpful! These are just a few things I wish I figured out sooner when I started the game.

*I'm not 100% certain that if you miss picking up a collectible you will not have another chance to find one during that run, but in the runs I do remember missing them, I did not find a second chance.

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Stick figure "brand" image for this guide courtesy of https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=225136&picture=running-stickman - thank you, Piotr Siedlecki!

[Gangsta Shots]

Cheers for the informative guide