Hey! I'm looking to get started running CultSim. If you're reading this and have any tips for optimizations, strategies, or even recording/splits software, (I'm very new to speedrunning,) I'd love to read through them.

Hey there, the most important thing to take into account is which legacy you want to run. Bright Young Thing is unique compared to the other legacies because using this legacy you can start a run with a really powerful book / lore, which makes runs using this legacy substantially quicker compared to just about anything else (except for the KillYourBoss% category). I am actually away for the next week but I could send you save files you can use for Bright Young Thing runs in about a week's time, and there is also a very good guide for Forge ascension using Bright Young Thing in our guides section already.

As for recording/splits software, I like to use StreamLabs because usually I'll stream on twitch whilst doing a run, but you can also use it to record without streaming to a website. If you don't want all the extra stuff that comes with StreamLabs then just go for OBS, which is the open source software that StreamLabs is built off of. For timers I personally keep it simple and use WSplit, which is very simple to use and setup. There are alternatives that have more features but I am not personally familiar with them.

But yeah, this game is relatively new on the leaderboards so outside of the bright young thing categories, there is a lot of room for optimisation and new strategies and there are still loads of ways this game could be done faster.