Would not call this a guide wholeheartedly, it is very barebones. More so an information compilation.
The goal is to claim every single free tile of the map, so influence is what you want. Sources of influence change: Walk into tile (+3 inf per day) (+1 inf from allies) Diplomacy (+20/22 or 23/25/27 or 28/30 inf) Defeat rival cat (+2 inf) Battle win (+25 inf) Lavender (+10-20 inf based on foraging level) Overnight changes (- or +, varying by modes. V.Hard goes up to 35 from observation) (changes can occur in claimed tiles <100% or next to (enemy) claimed tiles including those at 100%) Out of these options, lavender can be harvested and bought reliably and stockpiled for great influence increase in a short period of time, they will carry the run. Diplomacy is powerful and without a hard use limit but has a long-ish cooldown (240/225/210/195/180s, an in-game day is ~576s) Battles are unpredictable and may take place in already claimed tiles, which becomes a timesink as not joining may end up in loss. The random appearance of rivals is also unreliable and relatively weak. Entering tiles as a method of influence gain should only be considered for completing a claim to save up on lavender or diplomacy.
Mews are used to expand the inventory and buy lavender from Delta (or Peanut). A larger inventory allows you to make less lavender resupply runs while spamming them and carry more items for selling. From experience, your sources will be battles(+1/3/5 per enemy cat), other plants, and prey. Recommended that doves (5 mews/48% hunger) and bass (8 mews/56% hunger) are kept for selling instead of eaten. Frogs (2 mews/43% hunger) should be eaten instead of kept for selling. Black hares (5 mews/54% hunger) sell better than rabbits (4 mews/53% hunger) with minimal hunger value difference. Sell price of plants: 2 Mews: black berries, blueberries, goldenseal 3 Mews: raspberries, licorice root, valerian 4 Mews: marigold (lavender but there's no point) 5 Mews: snake lily 15 mews: catnip Prioritise carrying high-paying plants when inventory is filled.
To improve effectiveness of lavender and diplomacy as well as efficiency of battles, EXP is also of consideration. Sources of EXP: Sleeping (+5EXP, 8 hrs after last wake) Foraging (+2EXP per harvest) Fighting (+2EXP per defeat) Hunting (+1EXP for success, pounce not required) Uncover staircase in mines (+1EXP) (not suggested) Task Board (+25 EXP for 3 tokens) The major source will be from foraging, which is predictable, quick, and relatively high-paying. While lavender is the focus plant, other plants along the way should also be grabbed for this purpose. Task board should be considered as helpful bonus if a favourable task is assigned, but not included in planning.
Onto skills, what to upgrade/get would depend on difficulty. These are merely suggestions based on experience. Core skills, deduced based on V. Easy difficulty: Fighting Lvl4: a higher dps can end the fight faster, damage is same at lvl4 and lvl5 Foraging Lvl7+: make the most out of lavender, valerian, and berries. valerian gives 20% boost starting at 7, 25% at 10 Sprint Lvl3: Levels for cooldown Diplomacy Lvl3+: Equal to/better than battle win. 3 uses can be done in a day at Lvl4/5 if used back-to-back Warp Temple Lvl1: Should not need to have a shorter cooldown, though 100EXP to decrease 30s is not bad Not quite required: Hunting: if a blue jay/cardinal/catfish spawns, high hunting on harder difficulties would be favourable Swimming Lvl4: may be unnecessary with certain routes. Deep Cuts: (1/1/2/2/3) damage based on levels, for battles in harder difficulties Summon Allies: (2/2/2/2/3) allies based on levels, for battles in harder difficulties, or 1% inf per ally spawned. Heal Allies: (4/4/5/5/6) hps based on levels, for battles in harder diffiulties. Lion's Roar: quickly end a battle if used properly by running the enemy troop offscreen. Best used in tile corners and open areas where they are twice as likely to run off and cannot get stuck. Note that enemies running off do not count for defeat influence bonus, give EXP, or drop mews, this only helps with daily battle tiles. Other battle skills: Personally do not find them useful. Warp Home: unlike temple, this is likely deep in the region fully claimed by your side. The time stop effect should not be notable for speedruns either. Passive skill upgrades cost: By level: 22, 28, 38, 52, 70, 102, 138, 178, 232, 260 Total to reach the level: 22, 50, 88, 140, 210, 312, 450, 628, 860, 1120 As the cost increases, it is not recommended to reach max level for passives. Skills to unlock/upgrade early would be sprint, foraging, and swimming, as they help with speed. Battle skills and Diplomacy should be left for when they come into use later in the run.
On stockpiling lavender, they may be harvested around the map (32 total) and bought from Delta, Peanut, or Spring festival. This is a speedrun so ignore Peanut as an option and choose Mountain Domain. Lavender regrow five days after harvest except in winter, run across the map in an efficient route to grab them. Just pick and drop to let a new plant grow, they will not disappear on the ground and it is better to carry items for selling. This can change for later cycles if you decide to disperse them for influence spamming. Aside from lavender, pick up and use valerian to increase speed, keep various prey and plants for selling. Route which I have taken in my runs: https://imgur.com/a/4c522JY Try to get as much festival tokens as possible before the first spring ends, lavender is only worth 1 token so there is no loose change. Also leave your purchases at the temple. The second summer festival is pointless to attend unless you know you are short on mews and would like to sell confetti bags (6X9=54).
For battling and health matters, try to kite (hit and dodge) and/or walk along tile edges to lead enemies into leaving the tile. Sleeping should heal any damage well enough, but should you really need healing, grab a couple of power paws near the lavender plants. Leave the healing herbs for mews.
Keep your hunger at 150% for the speed boost at all times. Also note that your true max hunger is 350% so feel free to stuff down 4 extra rabbits after reaching 150%.
tl;dr, this is the schedule: New save > choose Mountain Domain > Start (Day2) > unlock sprint > fill hunger to 150%+ > run around to pick and drop lavender, use valerian, and keep other things to sell, upgrade skills along the way (Day2-3) > sell things to Delta on return and expand inventory > check taskboard (> do task if it's convenient) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day7-8) > sleep > walk down and join summer festival (Day10) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day2-3) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day7-8) > sleep > autumn festival (Day10) > sleep > winter festival (Day10) > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day1-2, note this is spring) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day6-7, again note the date shift) > sleep > Spring festival, spend your tokens (Day10) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, sell, taskboard (Day1-2) > sleep > run around again, upgrade, do battles, sell, taskboard, buy lavender from Delta (Day6-7) > start spamming lavender and diplomacy > finish spamming lavender and diplomacy, complete Route map if you don't want to scroll up https://imgur.com/a/4c522JY
Can also consider getting temple warp, den warp, sprint, diplomacy and use diplomacy, then just wait out the cooldowns while time is frozen in dens and temple ruins, running back to unclaimed tile, but that's very tedious and I'm not sure how fast that would be. You can skip the rose, trinket, molby cutscene if you never sleep.
