Speedruns

An insane person named Or321 once thought to do a speedrun of NGU, to see how fast things can be. If you think you are insane like him (or more), this page is for you! If not, please go away now. You are not that masochistic. Your sanity and innocence are at stake.
A speedrun of a game is the act of playing the game while trying to achieve a certain goal in the fastest way possible, with certain rules which follow.
What is an NGU speedrun, you ask? Well, you know how NGU is a single player idle game, right? You can do stuff as you like, try things out, explore, and slowly progress in the game? Well, you can throw all of these into the trash.
Here, you need to "beat the game" as fast as possible!
Just remember, hating yourself is a prerequisite for even trying.
== Categories ==
Many speedruns have several categories, each with a certain set of rules and goals.
Here are the categories thought out by Or321 and the NGU community:
Category Name 	Description 	Completion 	Restrictions
Any% 	Basic speedrun. Start a fresh game, and work your way up in the story bosses and adventure. Use only what game provides to you naturally 	Enter evil difficulty	
* No Real Money Purchases
* No external cheats
AP% 	Same as a basic run, but with real money purchases! 	Enter evil difficulty	
* No external cheats
Cheat% 	Use whatever nefarious means you fancy to achieve the goals! 	Enter evil difficulty	
* None, go to town!
GRB% 	For those wanting a shorter run, race to kill the first titan! A quick race, to Gordon Ramsey Bolton 	Kill GRB 	
* No Kred Purchases
* No external cheats
TAS 	A basic speedrun, but with help from your trusty AI/Scripting! A 'Tool Assisted Speedrun' which means building a script or program which plays the game by itself. Visit the '#scripting' thread on the community Discord for more info	Enter evil difficulty	
* No Kred Purchases
* No external cheats
"UltraWhale++"	You are too rich. Money is a nuisance that must be ridden from your bank account. Spend, spend, spend. Just remember, you are the reason 4g is able to buy his second Yacht 	Enter evil difficulty	
* shrug
**Except for the listed completion goals, you don't have to complete anything if you don't want to - Adventure sets and Items, challenges, Yggdrasil fruits, MacGuffins, etc.
(That's why it is called Any% category - only the end goal is important).
== Rules and Restrictions ==
Except from the Cheat% category, all use of external programs to alter the game state and memory is banned. Running TAS on any category is excluded from that restriction.
Buying AP with kreds is permitted only in the AP% and UW++ categories. (Why would you even do that?)
Using exploits and utilities that can be done in-game are permitted. Examples are save-scumming (saving and loading a save until a desired result happens), opening the game instance several times, etc.
Timing in all those speedruns is done with IGT (In game timer). Since you can stop or fasten the game clock in comparison to a real time clock, only the timer in "Info 'n stuff → Misc stats → Total time played" counts.
== Submissions and splits ==
If you really feel like trying any of those categories, then you also need to record your progress as you go. Below is a list of milestones, or "splits", for the Any% category, for you to follow. Timing is done with IGT. In addition to recording your total time played in each milestone, please also record you total rebirths count, and total exp at the time.
==== Splits ====
Note - The order can be changed if you did those tasks in a different order. Also, recording splits for auto-killing a titan for the first time is nice-to-have, not mandatory.
Tutorial zone (first boss kill)
Sewers (first boss kill)
Forest (first boss kill)
Cave (first boss kill)
Sky (first boss kill)
High Security Base (first boss kill)
GRB - first kill
GRB - first auto kill
Clock Dimension (first boss kill)
GCT - first kill
2d Universe (first boss kill)
GCT - first auto kill
Ancient Battlefield (first boss kill)
Jake - first kill
Jake - first auto kill
A Strange Place (first boss kill)
Mega lands (first boss kill)
UUG - first kill
UUG - first auto kill
Beardverse (first boss kill)
Walderp (final form) - first kill
Walderp - first auto kill
Badly drawn world (first boss kill)
Boring ass earth (first boss kill)
Beast v1 - first kill
Beast v1 - first auto kill
Beast v2 - first kill
Beast v2 - first auto kill
Chocolate world (first boss kill)
Beast v3 - first kill
Beast v3 - first auto kill
Beast v4 - first kill
Beast v4 - first auto kill
Boss 301 reached
Enter EVIL
Explanations: Since adventure is the main way to progress in NGU, and is a requirement to enter evil anyway, all the splits are focused on that. Reaching boss 301 is easy after getting Beast V4 accessories.
If you try a GRB% category, only the splits up to "GRB - first kill" are relevant.
==== Recording ====
In most speedruns, a proof of the speedrun is required, usually in a form of a video of the play. Since such a video of an NGU speedrun is an impossible task (we are limited by the technology of our time), you don't have to do that, but still make sure to record your true stats, and don't stray from the laws stated above, as those speedruns can never be verified in the first place.
Otherwise, you will indeed be a cheater! No one likes cheaters, right?
Exception for the Cheat% category you naughty fast slacker sanics!
If you run any category that allows buying AP, please also specify how much AP you bought in total.
Just provide a final output of your run, with all the relevant splits, recorded with total play time, total exp, and rebirths count.
== Hall of fame ==
Or321 did the speedrun in the Any% category, and since he is the world record holder for that category (Huehuehue), here is his final run output. If other players are up to the task in any category, their records can be added here.
Just note, Or321 didn't record the total EXP and rebirth count stats, only the play time. Shame. (*ding*)
But really, these timelines sounds like pure bullshit to most of us.
==== Any% ====
# Or321 - Final time: 67 days, 21:46:47. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wBMjWfKzMkWR63zub_1agALymt8KQ7eZnDZ7ql49jUY
==== GRB% ====
# DanielC5801 - Final time: 1 day, 18:55:09. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J8eEyjc7jB4W2FHjuFOIBkoYyqZwU0lFgaezRmn0Rys
#Or321 - Final time: 2 days, 10:29:17. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VSp5B-vXifW00vebwLwSYwxMrfQgsBnQFkJpwxxaMS8
==== CHEAT% ====
# SerenaM - Final time: 0:03:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_QifoBygVE
# ReiSaotome - Final time: 0:41:58. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C5IWTQmHkQ5fs3ssJul-3duHqlq3DgAC0hRiOoQYPqk
== Strategies ==
MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT: It is strongly recommended to play the game normally before reading this section. It contains many spoilers about the tricks which can used in your casual run, to make it faster. Such things may or may not spoil your experience/fun of the game, so use them at your own risk. Don't complain if the game-play is ruined for you.
You are probably wondering how a speedrun of NGU is possible? You played for months before making it to Evil, and someone does it in half of your time? You want to try an NGU speedrun (in whatever category) and don't know how to begin? This section is for you. Some tips and tricks to make it not the worst thing ever.
Some of the points here are also true for speedrunning games in general.
=== Recommendations ===
* Play and "finish" the game at least once, before trying a speedrun. Not for the bold reason stated above, but because you can't run if you didn't learn to crawl and walk, right? But don't waste too much time in the early sections. Those are for newbs.
::That means, enter Evil in a casual run. Don't worry - it is a single player game after all, you can take your time, try things for yourself, make mistakes, LEARN the game. Besides, you can't learn from your mistakes if you never done any mistakes, can you?
* Be well versed in the game mechanics and features of Normal difficulty. You should know when every game feature unlocks, adventure stats required for each zone, how to get special items, challenges bonuses, etc.
* It is recommended to study the wiki page for adventure as well, it has great information about the zones, titans, and items.
=== Getting started ===
Plan ahead - This may be the most important step, even before you play. Plan your steps about how to play in each section of the game, how to spend your Exp; AP; and PP, when to do challenges, etc. Write down the general steps you intend to take, if you have to. You will see how easier it is to play when the road in front of you is clear.
The general phases of Normal difficulty:
* Getting to sky zone (unlocking ITOPOD)
* Getting to GRB (unlocking challenges and the NGU menu)
* Getting to GCT (unlocking Yggdrasil. Pretty useless at first)
* Getting to Jake (unlocking gold diggers)
* Getting to The Unmentionable (unlocking beards)
* Getting to Walderp (unlocking MacGuffins, which may be pretty useless in a fast Normal difficulty run, but most importantly, a FULLY BOOSTED CANDY CANE OF DESTINY) < Whoever wrote this has a screw loose (note from Or321: I was talking about initial candy cane with fully boosted special stats at level 0. Who even thought otherwise?)
* Getting to Beast V1 (unlocking quests)
* Climbing the beast versions up to Evil difficulty
The play style might change in each phase to complete it in a faster time.
=== Guidelines ===
* Kitty is cute, right? NO. We hate kitties. They are the bane of our existence. We also hate pink ribbons with a great passion.
::(Hint: Don't listen to the above text, choose either, they both give 50,000 AP)
* Ratios. We all love ratios. You may have heard about 1:37.5k:1, or 1:40k:1, or even 1:40k:2. There are also energy/magic ratios - most people are recommending 8:1 up to 3:1.
::Those are general guidelines which helps us not think too much. Too bad they may not be as optimal if we want a faster run. Well, those ratios were not designed for a speedrun at all! so be sure to throw them away. You might want to do some mental math - Spend exp on stats you think are worthy for the goals you set to yourself, which depends on your total stats, adventure progress and gear, available exp, and so on.
* Sometimes, NUMBER is important. We all heard that NUMBER is temporary, Exp is permanent, so Exp must more important, right? Well, depends. At first, NUMBER is important to push through the story and unlocking those sweet adventure zones as you go.
::Exp doesn't do that (not directly at least).
* Adventure, adventure, adventure. The faster you get to fight in a higher zone, the faster you get better power/toughness stats, as well as better special Energy/Magic/whatever stats.
::Since adventure is the main way to progress in this game, it should also be the main focus in the speedrun. Therefore, everything that doesn't contribute to adventure stats, drop chance, and the NUMBER required for the adventure zones, should probably have a lower priority.
::Don't feel obligated to stay in a zone until you max its set - you can always do that later with more ease, when you are stronger. If you can get to a higher adventure zone with the previous set at level 0, semi boosted, go for it. Chances are you won't miss the previous set very much.
::Of course, maxing sets gives bonuses and Exp, so it's up to you to decide when do you want to focus on those. It is true for pendants, looties, and flubbers as well.
* Manual killing enemies in adventure - super important. Don't pretend you didn't knew it was coming. Resistance is futile.
* Lowering basic training caps is important, but up to the point where you can spent decent energy amounts on all skills at once, you don't have to focus on lowering the caps to 1. Buying the "Training auto advance" with 300 Exp should also be done early. Unless you are playing this game almost 24/7. Hmm.
* Can you auto-kill titans? If life allows it, and you are near a vicinity of a computer, set a timer to remind you to equip your drop chance gear before the kill. Extra helpful if you didn't do many No-Rebirth challenges.
=== Tricks, exploits, and secrets ===
Those are tricks which exploit how the game works internally, in order to have a higher chance to get more goodies faster. Yes, we are talking about adventure RNG here, baby. Those tricks are permitted to use in your speedrun. Just don't brag about your "amazing" luck, or you will be frowned upon by society.
While it is not really clear how 4g handles some of the RNG aspects of the game, the random seed for adventure seems to change when you change adventure zones, equip/unequip an item, or activate/deactivate the drop chance digger, or when you just wait a bit. Why is this important?
* Opening the game in many instances
::Let's say you are idle grinding a zone to farm a certain item, for example, Stealthiest Chest. Math and probability say you are expected to get one in every 1000 boss kills. Why not open the game twice? Now you kill 1000 bosses in half of the time! If it looks like the two instances are identical with their drops, you should probably try to change the random seed in one of the game instances. It should work eventually.
::You can always open even more instances! Extra the kills! Extra the fun! (High CPU is probably required)
* Save-scumming
::That refers to the act of saving and loading a game, several times until a desired result happens. That result usually is adventure loot from titans. What does it mean? save before fighting a titan, then kill him.
::Not happy with the result? load the game and try again! If you have low drop chance for the titan, this will mean much more tries before you get the thing(s) you want. Don't expect to get 10 drops from Walderp with only 10% drop chance, save-scumming or not.
::Kinda happy with the result, but not really? Save the game again on a different file, then try again with the previous file as much as you want. If you didn't get anything better, or you are bored with trying, you will have an anchor point to return.
::The "change your adventure random seed" works here too - try to do that before fighting the titan, or you will get exactly the same stuff again!
::Note: using that trick will mean fighting the same titan several times in a row until you are happy. Is it long? Yes. Is it tiring? Yes. Is it worth it? Maybe. Hotel? Trivago.
* Save-scumming (2)
::Right now, there is only one other area for save-scumming, which is known to humanity - Troll challenges. You can save and before small or big trolls, and load back if you are not happy with what you have got. Best thing - Troll challenges have no offline progress, so the in game timer won't run either!
* Auto-killing titans
::If you can auto-kill a titan, you can implement the previous tricks here too. The major problem with being able to auto-kill a titan, is offline progress - the titan will be killed, even when the "Automatically Kill Titans" setting is turned off. Loading a previous save file also counts as "being offline".
::The solution - Do not perform an auto-kill! The auto-killing is happening because you are too strong (Shame on you). This means, make yourself artificially weaker - unequip your weapon/armor items. On extreme cases, even deactivate your adventure digger, if you have one.
::In conclusion:
::- Unequip stuff until you don't have auto-kill stats
::- Save the game
::- Equip the items back and then auto-kill. Load the save file back if necessary, and repeat.
::This process is much faster than the previous manual killing.
* Auto-killing titans (2)
::Are you TOO MUCH strong for a certain titan to be able to do the previous process? Can you even auto-kill him while being naked?
::Oh well. In that case, multiple game instances trick comes to the rescue! You surely understand how this works at this point. Category:Guides
::
::*cough* you can also turn off "Auto-Kill Titans" in the settings. *cough*