Heya, thought I'd get a routing / theory-crafting / general speed tips thread going.

So far I don't have so much of a "route" as a general game plan. Some of these things are going to be REAL obvious to anyone who has done speedruns before, but still included as reminders.

Some of these can be ignored for any% unrestricted where you don't need to care about damage, fuel, battery, etc

• Do objectives immediately instead of exploring / farming
• If no marked locations for Story missions, explore toward known Story locations
• Minimize time spent scrapping / looting - know what you need and don't farm beyond that.
• Also, learn the best ways to farm the things you do need.
• Health and Durability are resources - spend them wisely.
• The only HP that really matters is the last one.
• Minimize research beyond what is needed to progress the story

Research to rush:

• Offroad Tires - Far better than Spares, generally more useful than Summer Tires, you can even research these after the first mission.
• Matter Deconstructor - Need for Dumpster Pearls
• Liberator - This can get Armored Doors and Panels from Squires far earlier than research. They need 5 Sap to craft, feasibly farmed from Tourists.
• Hand-Vac - Far quicker for picking up scraps, NEED for Marsh Eggs etc
• Turbolight Engine - B/c the Carbureted Engine is WEAK. Don't bother farming 40 Sap from Tourists, probably won't be able to craft this until Mid-Zone.

Research to consider:

• LIMpulse Emitter - Keeping grabby Anomalies and Bunnies off your car can come in clutch.
• Resource Radar - Locates resources but also valuable vehicles like Squires, Investigators, Box Trucks and Fuel Tankers. I slept on this until late in my normal playthrough.
• Any Extra Fuel Capacity - Fewer refueling stops on the road means less time spent refueling.
• Any Passive Battery Recharge - Seems more efficient than crafting jumpers in the long run, but if you aren't using abilities or leaving your headlights on, maybe skip this. It DID prove very useful on the mission with the LIM Shield, though
• Storage additions seem like a waste but I need to see how painful it is when trying to finish a run without any. Maybe useful for storing extra parts picked up w/ Liberator
• Re-roll / Junction Skip - pretty-late-game but obviously useful, gets better with antenna upgrades for more charges
• Matter Regenerator - Parts stored here will be fully repaired after returning from a run. Cuts down on mats spent on Putty (chemicals!) or fixing status effects.

--- TO-DO LIST ---

Actual Routing Stuff

• Minimum mats needed for mandatory research / upgrades at each stage
• Best spots to go when no story objective is marked
• Best farming methods for needed mats
• Is it worth it to grab Anchors beyond what's needed for the gate to speed up research?

Ongoing

• Document useful glitches / movement tech / skips

=== MANDATORY Research / Upgrades and Costs ===

--Scanning Antenna--

When : After Trip 1, "Into the Wilderness"

Cost

• 1 Broadcast Transmitter (Unique, obtained from Radio Tower in 1st Trip)
• 5 Plasma (Required for objective in 1st Trip)
• 40 Scrap Metal
• 1.0 Stable Energy

--LIM Shield--

When : After Trip 10, "The Deep Zone Crossing"

Cost

• 6 Scrap Metal
• 10 Plasma
• 2 Circuit Board
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal

The blueprint is provided, there is no Energy cost to research the LIM Shield itself. However, the Advanced Workbench is required to craft it, which has several pre-requisites.

Pre-Requisites and Costs

Matter Deconstructor (path to Advanced Workbench)

• 35 Scrap Metal
• 4 Gear
• 4 Electronics
• 0.8 Stable Energy

Matter Regenerator (path to Advanced Workbench)

• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 6 Chemicals
• 0.3 Stable Energy

Advanced Workbench

• 4 Steel Sheet
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 7 Electronics
• 10 Copper Wire
• 3.0 Unstable Energy

Steel Sheet (pre-requisite for Advanced Workbench)

• 1 Fabric
• 0.2 Stable Energy

Bulb (path to Steel Sheet)

• 1 Fabric
• 0.2 Stable Energy

Total Costs (all pre-reqs + crafting LIM Shield)

• 6 Chemicals
• 2 Circuit Board
• 10 Copper Wire
• 11 Electronics
• 2 Fabric
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 4 Gear
• 10 Plasma
• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 41 Scrap Metal
• 4 Steel Sheet
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal
• 1.5 Stable Energy
• 3 Unstable Energy

===== Total Minimum Required Farm to Complete the Game =====

• 1 Broadcast Transmitter (Unique, obtained in 1st Trip)
• 6 Chemicals
• 2 Circuit Board
• 10 Copper Wire
• 11 Electronics
• 2 Fabric
• 5 Gas Cylinder
• 4 Gear
• 15 Plasma
• 30 Plastic
• 10 Rubber
• 81 Scrap Metal
• 4 Steel Sheet
• 28 ThermoSap Crystal
• 2.5 Stable Energy
• 3 Unstable Energy

=== Best / Notable Material Sources ===

Bulbs

• Refined : [add recipe]
• Using the Hand-Vac on lit Sodium Vapor lights, guaranteed 1 per light

Gears

• Refined : 3 Scrap Metal [verify recipe]
• Random chance to drop from scrapping tires

LIM Magnet

• Magnetizers found in the Deep Zone turn Scrap Metal to LIM Magnets at differing ratios, usually ~ 3:1

Rubber

• Scrapping any tires gives some, but Offroad Tires found randomly attached to Squires, Investigators, Fuel Tankers and Tow Trucks seems to give the most.

Scrap Metal

• It's everywhere. You should be swimming in it. Almost everything you scrap gives some.
• You will need a substantial amount for making LIM Magnets in the Deep Zone.

Steel Plate

• Refined : [add recipe]
• Scrapping Steel Doors / Panels / Bumpers

Thermosap Crystals

• Tourists rarely drop these. Throw scrap metal at a cluster of Tourists to start a chain reaction of explosions for a decent early source of Sap.
• Scrapping Armored Doors / Armored Panels found on Squires and Investigators commonly drops one, not guaranteed.
• Thermosap Compressors found in The Scorch areas of the Mid-Zone give ~10, Impact Hammer required

(To be expanded)

=== The Route ===

(To be added)

Actual route still to be added, likely will see further optimizations after posting. For now, some notes:

15 trips appears to be the absolute minimum

With the destinations I chose, the only time you encounter The Scorch, the Mid-Zone area type that contains ThermoSap Compressors, is when you go to Red Meadow. If you wish to craft the Turbolight Engine, it is VERY IMPORTANT to check how much ThermoSap you have before embarking on that run and ensure you farm enough to total 70 ThermoSap - 42 is required to craft the Engine and 28 to craft the LIM Shield, required for The Deep Zone Crossing

===== Useful Tech / Glitches =====

Floor Clipping - found by ckixy

(expand later)

Mousewheel Jumping / bhop

(expand later)

(btw I'll mostly be adding to this thread via editing the existing posts which doesn't bump the thread, so check back here for any additions!)

Duping heavily affects any category that allows glitches. As you can dupe anchors, the trip count will probably be a lot lower.

I hadn't heard of the anchor dupe yet!

Unfortunately, the minimum trip count is not dictated by how much energy you can get, it is literally the actual bare minimum for how many times you must venture out from the Garage. 12 story missions that dictate a specific area you must travel to, and 3 others that let you go wherever you want and return to the Garage by a Gateway.

I confirmed it yesterday that you MUST craft the LIM Shield otherwise you cannot progress in the mission to cross the Old Wall, a certain gate will not open unless you have it equipped.

Even still, this brings the minimum amount of Energy you need to complete the game to 2.5 Stable and 3.0 Unstable Energy, and you'll have WAY MORE than that even if you only get the bare minimum to use a Gateway in each trip.

Anchor Dupe could still be useful in certain sections, like in the first trip where you want 3.8 Stable Energy in order to unlock the Antenna (required for storyline), the Matter Deconstructor, and Offroad Tires all right away.

If anybody finds a way to dupe ThermoSap, or any other resources, that would be FAR more useful since ThermoSap is a MAJOR bottleneck. You need 28 of it at the bare minimum to craft the LIM Shield (again, required to finish the story) and 42 Sap to craft the Turbolight Engine, and getting that early would be HUGE.

I noticed today that duplicating anchors doesn't actually bank the energy in the crafting station, It more so gives you fake energy that tricks the game into letting you leave a zone quicker.

All resources can be duplicated as long as you can craft a tool/part/tier2 resource that requires and breaks down into said resource, the cheapest for thermosap would be the liberator I think?