Hello runners,

I’m here with an announcement regarding a clarification on and a small change of an existing rule: pausing during runs. Please keep in mind that existing runs will NOT be affected, however it is highly recommended that you read this post to understand how this rule will affect future submissions.

How was pausing during runs handled until now?

The previous game rules stated the following:

“Pausing is allowed as long as it’s not excessive or can be seen as abuse (auto-pause is recommended to be turned off). However, runners are actually encouraged to pause before loading transitions or while waiting for players to load in, in order to even the playing field across devices.”

In other words, pausing was allowed to give runners a breathing room during their runs as long as it didn’t involve any abusive strategies or as long as it wasn’t done consecutively in short intervals.

Pausing was also encouraged to help with getting a more accurate run time and to eliminate any unfair disadvantages that might come across between different devices, the most notable example being pausing while switching shards (going in and out of the caves).

Why are we changing our take on pausing during runs?

While it is still our number one priority to make speedrunning more accessible to everyone who is interested, it has come to our attention that the ambiguity of the previous rule set encouraged abusing the pause function more than it encouraged a more accessible competitive environment.

We don’t want to encourage eliminating risks or getting perfect inputs through the pause function, and we don’t want to trivialize the skill of fast decision-making during speedruns. However, we also want pausing to remain as an option for runners, so we have decided to be more clear about the rules regarding pausing instead of outright disallowing it or restricting it in an inconvenient manner.

What is and what isn’t pause abuse? When is pausing excessive and/or unnecessary?

Apart from situations like trying to execute frame-perfect inputs or any other situation where the pause abuse is obvious, here are some less clear examples for when pausing is allowed and when it isn’t. Keep in mind that this is not a definitive list, and should rather help as a guideline:

• You may pause the game to look into and exchange items with a container. You may NOT pause the game to consecutively engage with the same container over and over (reason: excessive pausing).
• You may prematurely interact with items (like equippables, consumables, harvastables, etc.) before unpausing the game. You may NOT pause the game every time you want to interact with an entity (reason: pause abuse).
• You may pause the game to search for an item in the crafting menu. You may NOT pause the game every time you want to craft something that is not in the current crafting tab/filter (reason: excessive pausing).
• You may pause the game to take a short break, or to wait for other players to load in, and you may sort your items/look at your map during that pause. This is also allowed during pauses such as after switching shards. However, you may NOT pause the game every time you want to sort your items/take a look at your map (reason: unnecessary pausing).
• You may pause the game BEFORE engaging in a situation that you know will require fast decision-making to prepare for it, such as fighting an enemy, exploring through the dark, walking/sailing through obstacles and hazards, etc. You may NOT pause the game to give yourself more time to think or to act during such situations, or in any situation where an active threat to your run has already engaged with you (reason: pause abuse).

In the end, we have decided to change the rule set regarding pausing as follows:

“Abusing the pause function is not allowed, especially to get frame-perfect inputs or to trivialize fast-decision making in a situation it is required. Auto-pause is recommended to be turned off. To allow for a brief and reasonable breathing room, pausing during the runs will be allowed as long as it is not done excessively. However, pausing is actually encouraged before loading transitions or while waiting for players to load in, in order to even the playing field across devices.”

These changes will be in effect immediately after this post goes live. Thank you for reading and we wish everyone all the luck and fun for their future runs!

I am proud to announce the next tournament courtesy of the DST Speedrun.com community: The Dragonfly (Seeded, No Wolfgang, No Wigfrid) Tournament!

In this challenge, players will be tasked with defeating the Dragonfly in any of five worlds that have been chosen by us with extremely unique generations, each one boasting its own set of benefits and challenges to overcome. As stated, Wolfgang and Wigfrid are banned, so players will have to get creative and learn a wide variety of perks and characters that don't have immediate access to high health and damage.

In addition to the standard solo category, players will also be able to compete for the first time in a Duo category. The two players must not pick two of the same character, however, so they are expected to take advantage of potential synergies between different characters in this challenge.

And since this tournament is for everyone to participate, we will also be handing out three $20 USD consolation prizes, which will be given out at the end of the tournament to three random participants who submitted a run but didn't win. This means everyone has a chance to win something, so you don't lose anything by giving it a shot.

This tournament will start tomorrow and will last for four weeks. The prizes will be distributed as follows: $120 USD for Solo 1st Place, $60 USD for Solo 2nd Place, $30 USD for Solo 3rd Place, $90 USD for Duo 1st Place (split between both participants however they choose), and 3x$20 USD consolation prizes.

The seeds and extra information about submissions can be found in the Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/HhGVQ3puyF

We hope to see you there!

Thanks to the support of the community, we are able to up the prize pool of the Speedrunning Tournament to a total of $200

The Speedrunning Tournament, centered around the Original Unnerfed Toadstool, will consist of two categories. Both categories will be strictly Solo, done in a Default World aside from starting season, as well as Unseeded. This Speedrun will be ran on a version of the game from 2016, and requires downpatching the game.

Category 1: Fastest boss kill. The only goal is speed. Kill the Original Unnerfed Toadstool as quickly as you can, while still abiding by the speedrun.com rules. 1st Place: $100 USD paid through Pay-Pal or digital Steam gift cards. 2nd Place: $50 USD paid through Pay-Pal or digital Steam gift cards. 3rd Place: $25 USD paid through Pay-Pal or digital Steam gift cards.

Category 2: Most creative boss kill, done in a speedrun. The goal is to have the most unique kill of the boss, using unconventional methods or new strategies that haven't been seen for. The goal here is for the player to create their own strategy, and still kill the boss in a timely manner. Run must abide by speedrun.com rules. Prize: $25 USD worth of DST skins.

Runs will be submitted in Bonus Categories --> Original Toadstool - Unseeded - Solo

The winner of the secondary Category will be chosen from these submitted runs, as they are to be submitted in the same place.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS TOURNAMENT IF THEY COULD BE INTERESTED

For the ability to easily downpatch to this version, talk to community members about strategies, join the DST Speedrun.com discord server: https://discord.gg/Wwg3BFp7K8

We are glad to announce that we have just started our first DST speedrunning tournament, in which the goal will be to kill the Original Unnerfed Toadstool as fast as possible!

This will require downgrading your game version. Runs will be submitted via this site in the "Original Toadstool" category in Bonus Categories. This speedrun will be done unseeded & solo.

The winner will earn a $50 cash prize, and there is even going to be an extra category for the most creative run with another prize. For more information about how to downgrade your DST version, as well as directions, discussion, and rules, join the DST speedrun.com discord: https://discord.gg/HhGVQ3puyF

We wish you the best of luck!

As of today the Individual Level Leaderboard that was used as the previous layout for the categories is no longer available. All the runs from that list that were eligible to be moved to the new format (most of them) were moved over and now the boards look much cleaner as a result.

Don't worry though, in case you'd like to see the old format again or want to see runs/categories that are no longer available, I took it upon myself to archive every single run on the old ILL, which you can view here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B4QUbEvpax6PdSY_JPQ1AX7zxuO8fgBZZTuYMqnug5A/edit?usp=sharing

Note that this is simply an archive of the entire Individual Level Leaderboard as of July 1st. That includes runs that were deleted and those that were moved to the new leaderboard, and therefore it is not a representation of which runs did or didn't make the cut. It's merely a snapshot of how the boards looked like as the old moderator left them, and does not imply any sort of agreement with details such as timing methods or the validity of the runs/categories included within it.

If you're curious, exactly 20 runs didn't make the cut out of about 81 (not including hidden ones). This includes primarily custom world and seasonal boss categories which are no longer supported. Everything else was moved, and most runs were adjusted and retimed to fit the new standards.

I also took the time to add more or less every single speedrun I was able to find that wasn't previously in this site (primarily unseeded ones). This has more than doubled our runs and the boards look a lot livelier as a result. I hope this motivates more people to start running DST so we can keep celebrating the accomplishments of the community. Good luck!

We now have an official discord server to help gather feedback from all members of the community. Help us decide on future changes as we work hard to improve the boards: https://discord.gg/HhGVQ3puyF

Read the full information about the upcoming changes in this thread: https://www.speedrun.com/do_not_starve_together/thread/m7xew