Gunfire Reborn doesn't necessarily have the usual "glitches" or time saving specific things you'd come to expect from other games, But one thing we have developed over the years is a greater understanding of the game's systems which we utilize mostly via save files.

Background on Preset

Through this development a player by the name of Komatozz/bedman planned and executed an idea thought to be possibly too slow or not too advantageous. Having made a file from scratch with 0 external tools - Just some crafty routing in terms of scroll unlocks they went on to take Every Single World Record at the time.

This file heavily utilized the mechanic that when you first reach the unlock amount for a Weapon or a scroll, the game immediately rewards you with that item in your current run on the enemy required to fulfill that unlock.

Setting up these unlocks all 1 or 2 kills away from unlocking results in a run where you guarantee those items every single run (Sometimes a bit of RNG for specific enemy spawns).

Preset does nothing more than just unlocking those items in a specific run, As some outside viewers have assumed that it modifies "All rng aspects" of the game - This is not true. (except for one instance which will be explained in Pity)

At the time these runs were submitted we had a decision as a mod team which was mostly an open discussion with the runners at the time too, Should we allow or disallow this method which we went on to allow.

Currently the rules for Preset are:

• It is allowed in only Any% & Individual levels categories.
• The specific way we define Preset is a file setup to specifically take advantage of the unlocked/dropped items, Picking those up will in moderation terms define it as a Preset. (Some accidental or unintentional unlocks may be dealt with on a case by case basis)
• The files we have used for these runs are always public and available to anyone, runner or not in the "Resources" section. (If newer ones are made we ask that all be public)
• All the files created are not using external tools, This for now is true but possibly later down the line we may allow this. (Currently no external tools exist for this).

Background on Pity

As preset was being used to lower the Any% time - A few top runners started to notice things regarding layouts when using the file. Specifically a conversation between community members: Pimmalage, Failology, Jackpls, Kid and Jonwillbert, The initial thing jack noticed was what we considered "God" 1-1 layout just seemed to not exist in the version of preset made by Pimmalage, and by not exist we scoured every preset run posted, and recorded locally ourselves. This through some assumptions and testing eventually lead to discovering the mechanic we call Pity.

Simply explained Pity is what we can only assume is a pseudo rng mechanic put in by the developers to avoid runs seeming the same, stale or potentially avoid layouts people struggle with.

The basic mechanic is your current save remembers 2 variations of a layout, decided by the last two times you entered that layout. For example if there are 5 possible variations of the Layout 1-3, The first time you entered it you got variation 2, The second time you got variation 4, The third time you enter that layout it CANNOT be the variations 2 and 4 only variation 1, 3 and 5.

If you've ever run the game a decent amount you will have learned some Layouts have variations which lose a TON of time (Looking at you 2-2), So using this method jonwillbert put an insane amount of time working through each section of the game using save backups to essentially make two runs back to back on a single save file containing two of the worst variations of each layout, Resulting in the third run never able to contain the variations that lose us the most time.

These pity files also went through the effort of attempting to avoid unlocking a large amount of the scrolls and weapons - Which for sure should be a debated topic and where most of the power/consistency of using this method lies.

We've openly discussed them being used at length and ultimately decided that they sit in a somewhat grey area since the specific methods used could just as easily be almost "Lucked" into on a regular file, or a new runner just happening to have less unlocks.

Currently the rules for Pity are:

• It is allowed in all categories.
• There is no specific definition for a pity file as by any definition we set, every single casual or non casual runner's file will be pity. The only category that effectively isn't pity would be Fresh file (As there's 0 previous runs on the save).
• All pity files will always be public to anyone to use in the resources section.
• Any pity file that coincidentally unlocks an item, Mostly due to low unlocks on purpose - Will not immediately be considered Preset, This can be decided on a run by run basis but the official ruling is if you don't pickup or use those items then you will have no issue. This extends to any run submitted - As unlocks especially for newer runners happen and cannot be prevented in some cases or just being unaware of the ruling.
• Pity files should not use external tools for their creation. This for now is true but possibly later down the line we may allow this. (Currently no external tools exist for this).

TL;DR

Preset - Uses the in-run unlock mechanic to guarantee weapons/scrolls. (Any% only)

Pity - Uses the Base game mechanic of Layout pity to effectively avoid the 2 worst variations of each layout. (All categories)

Files are always public in Resources

If you have any questions please contact via the discord/forums or direct messages and i will answer any and all questions, and add them to this post if necessary.

You're welcome to Message me on discord directly(Pimmalage), Join the official gunfire discord or via speedrun.com