#Introduction

As you only have 3 slots but 11 Glyphs and 17 subroutines exist in the game, it may be hard to select which 3 to use for your speedrun. This guide aims at sorting the 28 devices you can select and the 4060 different combinations possible into tier 1 (strong), tier 2 (fine) or tier 3 (useless).

#Glyphs

• Ancient Weapon: Tier 0. This weapon is so broken it deserves it's own category.

• Ancient Structures: Tier 1. Ancient Structures allow you to skip whole sectors, but it's still random if you stumble upon 0, 1, or even 2 ancient temples. This Glyph removes a huge chunk of RNG from an already RNG-heavy game.

• Headstart: Tier 1. It allows you to skip 4 systems (Sector 1) and therefore saves 100 fuel, so it adds consistency to your run by saving like 2-3 minutes, but it's a wasted slot after Sector 2.

• Equalizer: Tier 1. Negates the damage you might take from jumping without fuel. Is kinda broken with the Ancient Weapon.

• Leech: Tier 2. It's op with the Ancient Weapon, but you will rarely fight enemies during your run.

• Berserker: Tier 3. You need all your HP for jumps without fuel. Berserker eats away your HP. Cool.

• Splitter: Tier 3. Awesome with the ARC-9000, but how often will you use that?

• Predetermination: Tier 3. You want to carefully select your route, this Glyph negates that.

• Low Profile: Tier 3. You want as few jump suppressors as possible.

• Ancient Friends: Tier 3. Random allies spawning in? Who cares?

#Subroutines

• Fuel Conservation: Tier 1. Jumping takes a bit longer but it adds consistency and is almost mandatory on non-AW runs on higher difficulties. You waste time every jump but save so much more time overall because you don't have to collect that much fuel. It essentially cuts down on RNG to get consistently good times on Normal & Hard. On Easy you'd be better off using something else.

• Sensory Overload: Tier 1. It helps a lot with finding jump suppressors & Fuel faster, but is not as helpful on lower difficulties as Service Stations are more common there.

• Survival Instinct: Tier 1. Pair it with Equalizer, jump until 3+ of your ship's systems are damaged, use that damage buff from SI to kill the ancients at the temples faster.

• Daredevil: Tier 2. Pretty strong with the Ancient Weapon and Leech or Equalizer, but you will rarely fight enemies.

• Hull Bonus: Tier 2. Fine on Gunship, pretty useless on the other ships.

• Jump Repairs: Tier 2. Fine if you don't have Equalizer available yet.

• Devastator: Tier 3. Makes your boosters harder to use. Avoid this.

• Artisan: Tier 3. You won't collect many ressources in your run, and you certainly won't craft any weapons. Avoid this.

• Thrust Diversion: Tier 3. Usually, you jump in, boost around, jump out. This makes boosting worse. Avoid this.

• Infinite Drift: Tier 3. Only makes controlling your ship harder. Avoid this.

• Armor Bonus: Tier 3. Meh on Gunship, useless on the other ships.

• Energy Bonus: Tier 3. You don't boost & shoot that much.

• Damage Bonus: Tier 3. Let me make it clear again: You will rarely fight enemies.

• Beeline: Tier 3. You will rarely use secondary weapons and you don't have time to aim.

• Shadow Strike: Tier 3. You will rarely fight enemies. It only wastes a slot.

• Sensor Jamming: Banned on speedrun.com, as it's a Kickstarter Backer exclusive.

#Combinations

So out of the 4060 combinations there are like maybe 10 that are fine for speedrunning.

##"Ancient Weapon" Category

• Ancient Weapon, Equalizer, Headstart OR Ancient Weapon, Equalizer, Ancient Structures The golden standard of Everspace speedrunning. It's your decision if you go for consistency first and RNG later (Headstart) or reduced RNG overall (Ancient Structures). I personally dislike Headstart as the first sector is only 4 systems (75 fuel) anyway and Ancient Structures can help you to skip more than that. Sadly AW + Equalizer is completely absurd, leaving you with a choice to make.

• Ancient Weapon, Headstart, Ancient Structures This setup relies on Nanobots to maintain your "ammo" instead of Equalizer, but that risk is negated by consistency through skipping multiple sectors.

• Ancient Weapon, Equalizer, Fuel Conservation Jump in, kill an enemy, collect it's fuel, jump out. Sure, this combination requires you to kill enemies to maintain your hull, but it's unlikely that you will ever run out of fuel.

##"Regular weapons" Category

• Fuel Conservation, Headstart, Ancient Structures You're not able to jump that often without using fuel, but with some extra fuel you should get to Sector 7 if the game gives you access to 1-2 temples.

• Fuel Conservation, Equalizer, Headstart Full consistency. Get the maximum distance with the fuel you have while being able to do multiple jumps in a row without fuel.

• Sensory Overload, Ancient Structures, Fuel Conservation You're in full control of the risk you take. It's an extremely consistent setup that does not rely on RNG, but it's slow af.

• Equalizer, Headstart, Ancient Structures Needs testing, but it seems good in theory. This combination essentially uses the 3 most broken Glyphs that are not named "Ancient Weapon". Equalizer allows you to jump even with low Fuel, over and over again.

• Equalizer, Headstart, Survival Instinct Needs testing, seems good in theory too. You jump a few times without fuel and you'll have enough damaged ship systems to really benefit from the damage bonus, for example against the ancients at the temples. Sadly, you will have to rely on RNG to find these temples with this combination.

#Final Thoughts

So, that's it. Most of the Glyphs and Subroutines make no sense whatsoever in speedruns, others are extremely bonkers. Test around, try out different combinations and see how far you get.

Fuel up, Adams & Evas!