Not quite sure where else to ask for running tips, so I'll do it here.

I've been grinding for the last couple days, and 13:37 normal mode has proven itself to be a massive barrier for me. My sum of best is 11:10, but it's not uncommon for me to lose 10 or so seconds on any given gold at any given time. I know Tech Team is considered a huge point of RNG by most, but it's not just them, almost every single fight is incredibly inconsistent for me, to the point where it feels like it's almost out of my control if I get a run going or not.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I'm just missing something huge, or if the game really is that RNG heavy. I probably am, but I have been trying all sorts of different approaches, and nothing really seems to be working for me. But from watching the top 3 runs, it does seem like they all have some sort of consistency figured out that I don't. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, I'd love to know.

The game is very influenced by RNG, looking at the best IL fights they often start with most of all enemies in the same side, getting a free multihit punch for free at the start is important to get the fight going

Secondly, enemies move in very inconsistent ways, sometimes they charge at you, sometimes they stand in place, sometimes they run away, and its here where i've found the most delays

Enemies like The Blind or The Plague dodge a lot of kicks, Pyromaniacs run so fast they can get behind you and split the fight, making it super slow, Tech Team is a huge one because they can either get fat heals or not heal at all

Overall, i havent yet figured out how to make fights more consistent other than attack according to the current team im facing weaknesses and trying to stack all enemies on one side of the map to get more multihits

you can stand in one place and kick them all the time and you need a lot of practice to heal up and try not to kick them too much in the blind try to beat them as much as you can it will be good and kick a lot

I would honestly start practicing ILs because the RNG doesn't get better but just like real fighting is all about how you react to the randomness, being able to make decisions based on enemy movement any moment.

Before I start, if you're interested or have any more questions, we have a discord server. Here's the link: https://discord.gg/cKjp3VA (If the invite doesn't work, DM me on discord, it's on my src profile.) We're pretty active even when the game has dry periods so come swing by!

EM is VERY, VERY RNG based. You can become better by practicing a lot. Like Renk and daedlus already said, doing ILs is a very good way to learn how different enemies act and react. There's unfortunately no setup to get the enemies to spawn all on the same side. I'll add that running on Pro difficulty might be better to practice a full run since there are more enemies and they're a bit more aggressive.

To be honest, there's not THAT much skill/acquired knowledge required to get a good run, you mainly have to get good RNG. But, some here are some very small tips that might help you learn the game a bit faster:

• Try to always group enemies together to hit them all at once (pretty clear once you've done) a few runs but still wanted to mention it).
• Always stay on your guard at when you've just defeated an enemy because even though their health bar might've disappeared, they might get up again for some reason. There is no real explanation to this, but it seems to happen more often with the Dozerman.
• Try to identify the "boss" enemy each round as fast as possible. They're usually a bit different (except the Frozen) from the other enemies (i.e. Replicants' boss has shin pads, Blind's boss is wearing a red headband, etc.). They have more health and don't get knocked out after only one A-punch. If you're close to the border of the screen and facing it, use a W-kick to knock him out. If you're not close to a border or have your back to it, use an S-kick. This strat is gonna work most of the time, but you'll get to know how to judge every case at some point.
• Like Renk mentioned, pretty much every enemy has some sort of "quirk." I'll try to lay some out here based on my knowledge of the game:
  • Replicants: They will sometimes run away from you (more than other teams).
  • Frozen: Not much to say, they're pretty much normal.
  • Cirrian Guards: Not much to say, they're pretty much normal.
  • Toxic10: Not much to say, they're pretty much normal, though I have a feeling they attack in groups more often than the Frozen or Cirrian Guards.
  • Dozerman: They have more HP and all require more than just one A-punch to get knocked out.
  • Pyromaniacs: They're really fast and tend to get behind you so it's easy to get them to split up.
  • Plague: They require more than just one A-punch to get knocked out and they dodge quite a bit more than other teams.
  • Blind: They dodge A LOT more than other enemies and will dodge S-kicks pretty much all the time.
  • Tech Team: They are literally the spawn of Satan himself. They weren't loved as children and sold their souls to the king of Hell to get some healing abilities. The only thing I'd recommend for the fight is, during the 5 seconds countdown before the fight, to pray to the EM gods while saying: "Please Tech Team, be kind!"
  • Death: The "Deathlings" don't have much health and are basically pushovers, but they're a lot coming at you at the same time. The boss can heal and runs away from you to do it and also dodges pretty much like the Blind. The fastest way to beat this team is to really focus on the boss, running towards him to always try and knock him down as soon as possible. This pretty hard strat is known as "fast Death." If you're wondering what it looks like, daedlus is pretty good at it so watch one of his ILs.

That's pretty much it, I don't blame you if you didn't read all of it, I guess I was kinda motivated to write all I know about the game down lol. :D

My first run was 20 minutes and I think you should try 100% it will be a good workout for you There you will see the mistakes you made and the hits you missed.