(re-edited 05/05/25)

I think one of the coolest parts about speedrunning is the drive of runners to hone their craft down to near perfection. It’s this characteristic that has brought about some of the amazing achievements in speedrunning today. However, along the path of practice for perfection lies the grind - and for some... burnout.

It takes a lot of time and effort to become the best in the world, and the determination of some runners to make it to the top is absolutely astounding. At the end of the day, though, we’re all human beings with mental and physical limits. Sometimes people forget that and just keep pushing and pushing — until they finally break and just burn out. So let’s try to prevent that, shall we?

The No Reset Run — For newbies and experts alike

A “No Reset Run” is pretty much what it sounds like; it’s a speedrun where no matter what happens, you will continue the run and complete it in its entirety. Obviously, you don’t need to strictly avoid resetting all the time: it’s still a good idea to grind out your weaker areas in moderation. But far too often, people reset over things they really shouldn’t be (mostly new runners).

Even when resets are justified, forcing yourself into a constant cycle of them can wear you down fast.

This is just a waste of my time. Why even bother?

No, I promise you it isn’t.

Take the scenario of an endless loop of resets - this is exactly where the No Reset Run comes in. You’re probably mentally and physically drained - so toss aside the goal of a personal best for at least one run, and see it through to the end.

Finishing the run gives you a break, a bit of relief, and that quiet satisfaction of simply completing something. Adding a No Reset into your routine now and then can help you avoid burnout - especially if you’ve been stuck grinding early-game segments for hours.

Taking care of your mental and physical health is for the cool kids.

Improve your consistency

It’s a brutal feeling: you finally get past the early game after dozens of resets - only to lose the run because you haven’t touched the late game in days. No Reset runs help you stay sharp from start to finish.

Learn to adapt

This one doesn’t necessarily apply to every scenario in every game, but it’s something you should keep in mind as you run.

If you mess up a trick or otherwise make a mistake — try to salvage it. See if you can find a backup or alternate strat to minimize your time loss. Of course, in an ideal world this wouldn’t be necessary but mistakes ARE going to happen, and that’s okay. Chances are, you can still PB if you have a backup plan or can adapt on the fly.

Doing No Resets and searching for these backup/alternate strats can really help you out in the long run with consistency.

Help your brain out

I know how much it sucks to see red splits, I’ve been there too, and it makes me want to reset the instant I see it - but if you’re using LiveSplit, there’s a helpful feature that might make it easier.

There’s a comparison you can activate in Livesplit (Settings - Choose Active Comparisons) called “Balanced PB”.

Balanced PB redistributes your time gains and losses so your final time still matches your PB, but your splits feel less punishing to run against.

Not everyone will love this one, but it’s really nice if you had that one section that was just REALLY good, and it sucks to run against. This comparison takes that and makes it a bit more balanced among the rest of your splits. It won’t improve your gameplay or anything, but it’ll keep you in a better mindset, and that’s half the battle right there.

That’s all folks

In the end, everyone learns and practices differently, so you should keep that in mind while approaching how you tackle your next run. With that said, I hope you’ll keep this in mind and treat yourself to a No Reset Run once in a while. Trust me, it’s nice!

Whether you’re new to speedrunning or you’ve been doing it for years, I hope you’ve taken away something from this article but either way… take care of yourself folks, and then get to saving those frames!

Now go drink water or all your splits will be red.