Any% Route

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQC4F7OEwng7lcKU5BB5ScG6sdJMQ-ejFY0xKkcXEPw/edit?usp=sharing

Any% route - Diplomat

Spore any% route - Easy difficulty

The current way to go is:
Cell - Omnivore
Creature - Adaptable
Tribe - Friendly
Civilization - Religious

Get the NG speedrunning galaxy from the resources page and unpack it to %appdata%. Make sure to rename the Spore folder already present there to something else, and rename the Spore NG folder to Spore.
Go to your Documents folder and rename the My Spore Creations folder there, you don't have to place anything new there, the game will create a new folder there for you.
If you set it all up correctly, you should have a galaxy with no saved games in it, and only Maxis creations in the Sporepedia.
Change the graphics settings to your preferred resolution and quality settings in windowed mode and restart the game to apply them.

Install LiveSplit and use the load remover script from the resources page, Steam or Origin version depending on your version of the game.

Start a new game on tentacle number 2. Earth is tentacle 1, counter clockwise.
https://i.imgur.com/qeS8TvH.png

Cell Stage - Omnivore
Start as herbivore, and click back and forth on the menu until you start as a cell that has 2 eyes behind each other. This allows you to sell one of the eyes for an easy 5 DNA points early on.
Try to move in straight lines as much as possible until you get the Cilia part.
When growing for the 2nd time press backspace a few times to call a mate while growing, this will spawn your mate next to you at the new level.
Sell the eye and add a carnivore mouth next to the herbivore mouth.
Keep eating as much as possible and finish as omnivore, this will grant you the Summon Flock ability for creature stage.
At the last stage, hunt down the Maa cells, they drop 2 eggs that any mouth can eat as extra to the normal 3 meat.
Having the Cilia part on your cell before the early creature editor will guarantee unlocking wings straight off the bat in creature stage.

Creature Stage - Adaptable
As soon as you start creature stage, befriend the 2 closest nests, on easy difficulty this will be enough to unlock your first pack member slot.
Evolve your creature with some wings and abilities.
Keep socializing until you unlock the second pack member.
After you unlock the second pack member, start fighting everything. Use your summon flock ability a lot, if it goes on cooldown you can die or mate to instantly recharge it.
Migrate south, first somewhere to the center of the island and finally to the south beach. The nests will always be there, and even if the second migration has not triggered you can click on the nest to make it your home.

There's a few useful tricks for creature stage. Most animations can be skipped or interrupted by jumping.
You can eat distant fruit instantly by jumping shortly after clicking on it.
You can skip walking to your mate by clicking on your mate and jumping before your creature turns to face your mate, it helps to turn your creature sideways for this.
Befriend animations and the "hello" animation can also be skipped by jumping if you are far away and call to befriend in the air.
If your creature faces another creature, you can pause, select that creature and jump twice. When you unpause you will launch yourself forward at very high speed. Press escape to untarget the creature and hop a bit to maintain speed for a little longer.
Flying towards a selected creature gives you a speed boost as well.

Tribal Stage - Friendly
Go into the outfitter and add the Bakerwear and Ultra-Fez hats to your creature. This gives you more food per plate and faster befriending.
Befriend every single tribe, it's the fastest way. Avoid combat with other tribes at all costs and send gifts to prevent other tribes from attacking you.
You can have a single tribe member collect fruit while the band is out playing.
I personally like to use the Flying Fish ability to summon more food.
When small groups of other tribes pass by to gather or hunt it's faster to befriend those than to go to the other tribe.

First, gather food and buy 3 babies. Keep gathering for a little longer to buy the wooden horns, then send your chieftain with 2 horns to the first tribe and ally them while the remaining tribesmen gather food.

After allying the first tribe, you will unlock the maracas and a few more tribes will appear. Send a gift to the angry tribe, buy 2 more babies for a total of 8 tribesmen and buy the maracas.
Equip 2 of your tribesmen with maracas and send the larger band (chief+2 horns+2 maracas) to ally the next tribe.

Then there is a chance that you unlock the didgeridoo, if you do, buy it and equip the remaining 3 tribesmen with didgeridoos. 1 didgeridoo tribesmen will bring around gifts where needed and the rest of the tribe will ally the remaining tribes. Send your last didgeridoo tribesman back to the band after all gifts are done.

If you don't unlock the didgeridoo, go on to ally 1 more tribe with your chief, 2 horns, and 2 maracas.

Ally the last 12/12 tribe with your full tribe, ally their scouts if possible.

Civilization Stage - Religious
Your city hall needs at least 3 parts to be saved, so drag a part into the editor and copy it a few times with alt+click.
Create a land vehicle and a sea vehicle. Grab one of the body parts that only gives speed and mash alt+click to copy it until the speed fills up to 100%.
Use a single boat to claim a bunch of spice geysers in the sea, and claim the ones on land with 2 or 3 land vehicles.
Use the vehicles you created to get to other cities faster, and change your vehicle to a stronger one when they get there. I personally use the Pipe Tank and Nessie by Maxis. They have high power and appear in similar spots in the Sporepedia.
If a city does not start converting, try zooming in on it.

Space Stage - Diplomat
Skip the spaceship tutorial, scan the spaceship on another planet in your system, and leave your home system.
Before entering the next system, zoom out and rapidly click between your home system and the tutorial system 150 times to get Frequent Flyer 2 and unlock Interstellar Drive 2. Doing this during the tutorial does not use energy.
If you use the same planet from the speedrunning galaxy every time, the locations of artifacts and blue face empires will remain the same.
Learn the location of at least 2 artifacts, in case 1 artifact does not give you enough Sporebucks.
Find an artifact, buy the Interstellar Drive 2 from a blue face empire and start a trade route with 2 empires to get the Trader 1 badge and unlock Energy Packs.

Kingly Valence made a great video showing how to fly to the center of the galaxy, and where you can start trade routes and buy Energy Packs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47vD0D_N7q4

I also recommend you check out the commentated segmented speedrun by Savage Brick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV4EEF6WPVk

Beginner's Guide

This video will show how to set up everything before starting to Speed Run Spore! 
https://youtu.be/osvoP5VI4nM

Space Stage Individual Level Tutorial

Here is a comprehensive breakdown of the Space Stage Speed run as an Individual Level.

https://youtu.be/47vD0D_N7q4

Spore Speedrun Tricks (Youtube Playlist)

I've uploaded videos to youtube of the tricks I've found in this game

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU0fEhK_leXeziideRQgNdjfgQY094nT0

I also have a playlist of tricks that could be useful but either I haven't been able to recreate it or I haven't found a use for it yet. Feel free to add to it yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU0fEhK_leXdS9AczUEZ2prqI8BSnAMko&jct=WACxlezCE-NBOdtrf8JrMT69r_g-wA

Timing Examples for Individual Levels (Videos)

Cell Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iicFrFDCRRg

Creature Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQLmlBfWY8A

Tribal Stage: https://youtu.be/cVBLOAI6usQ

Civilization Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRZJp1YK_f4

Space Stage: https://youtu.be/s3EkQhEKjJE

Nome	Autore
Any% Route	Malt 9 years ago
Any% route - Diplomat	DucoVIII 4 years ago
Beginner's Guide	KinglyValence 5 years ago
Space Stage Individual Level Tutorial	KinglyValence 5 years ago
Spore Speedrun Tricks (Youtube Playlist)	Savage_Brick 6 years ago
Timing Examples for Individual Levels (Videos)	KinglyValence 5 years ago