I am thinking about timing out a "first run, max level" speedrun. It would have the simplicity of being something people can try out of the box while having the difficulty of completely unknown enemies/gifts and max level (though it would max at level 9). Also appropriate for marathons (so long as the marathon accepts that the cloud censorship is good enough).

Insteresting idea! Having another Fresh File cat would be nice, especially one that's less complicated than Tutorial% . Any reason in particular why the Lv9 Stipulation is there? It could just as well be "Light Rain Any%". Also, the RNG component is a big concern with Fresh File categories - this could be slightly mitigated by having a category that requires a set number of runs, with perhaps a specific Dream as the goal (Looking at you, Nothing Times Three).

I have brought it up with the community, and I'm sure we can find a way to implement your suggestion. In the meantime, please do share your thoughts on the specific run requirements!

Fresh File Any% Light Rain just feels a little too easy, but it WOULD be more consistent. The Level 9 makes it at least be a bit more challenging/interesting to watch the player adjust to what happens. Though Fresh File Nothing Times Three Any% Light Rain would show off more of the game...

I think the biggest benefit of just the first run is that you can have zero prep/knowledge about the game. The Fresh File multiple runs idea would honestly be even more RNG based. At that point you start going through and Radiating gifts to have additional control over the last run, but that will be even more dependent on having the best cheap gifts show up. Also memorizing all the starting boss Dreams and rewards would become a hurdle - which Dreams do you want to complete/avoid when possible?

On the other hand, doing the equivalent of the Hades 3-weapon run (maybe 50%+ file, Light Rain, all 4 normal characters) would work better for the multi-run idea. (Reason for the 50% file is how this game has more unlocks than Issac and my primary file is at 66% with 538/743 Steam achievements, lol)

As you can see by my lack of anything on Speedrun.com, I have not really been a speedrunner. But I have been watching GDQ and I would like to see this get into GDQ, Hotfix, or other marathons for visibility, so I am mostly thinking of Marathon-appropriate runs.