Full Speedrunning guide

Preface 
So because the rules of this game are a little lax, my setup for this game allows me to menu as quickly as possible. I keep the timer window right next to the text advance button for text prompts, and I have 6 extra keys on my keyboard, 4 which are set to spacebar, and 2 which are set to left click. There is nothing explicitly in the rules against this, hence why I have this setup.
I'll be talking about each tile with coordinates: A-E and 1-5. A1 is at the bottom corner, E5 is at the top corner, E1 is the left corner, A5 is the right corner. This isn't a great explanation, but I can't really think of a better one at the moment.

-Clicking Technique - I use my left index and middle finger on the 2 extra buttons on my keyboard set to left click, and I left click on my mouse at the same time. If you can drag click or butterfly click successfully, I would do this instead of normally left clicking, but this only works as long as you can maintain the mouse position because it only helps if you can keep clicking at the exact same spot. I tried switching my left and right clicks to butterfly click easier cause I have a g502, but it really did not make enough of a difference for me to actually keep on doing it.
-Movement - I recorded the game at 60fps. Cuboy takes 33 frames to advance each tile, and does not lose frames on turnaround. This means for each tile that you get closer to E3 before the shooting minigame starts, you can save a little over half a second. Also, as long as you stay on the path, it doesn't matter if you click the location you're trying to move to on the first try, just keep spam clicking until your mouse gets to the location works just as well and you won't lose time doing this, providing that every click doesn't have you stray off the path.
-RNG - There is so much RNG in this game. Each target in the shooting minigame can take from ~4-10 seconds, so you can imagine that RNG there will make or break runs. Also, cactus placement in the desert can slow you down slightly, as well as whether or not the tumbleweed will cover the exit, cause that happens sometimes. Also, sometimes the tumbleweed with the sheet music won't appear on the trip to the desert, which means automatically that the run is dead right there.

Beginning of the game / Town A Part 1
-Spam spacebar as fast as you can. I usually use two extra buttons on my keyboard that are set to spacebar and just spam these until the cutscene is skipped.
-The second you see that the cutscene is skipped, move your mouse to the text advance bubble.
-You can technically start clicking at any point in time here, but just to save some effort, I only start clicking as soon as I see the text bubble drop from the top.
-Using your clicking method, click as fast as you can to get through the text boxes from your boss.
-As soon as this text prompt is done, you'll have 34ish frames before you can move. In this 34 frames, move your mouse as fast as you can to somewhere vaguely in the direction of the saloon and start clicking. It doesn't matter if you click the saloon entrance on the first try as long as cuboy moves from C3 towards either D3 or C2. Within these 33 frames, you should hopefully be able to click the saloon entrance, but as long as cuboy stays on the path and doesn't stop at any point in time, you should be fine. Make sure the arrow that leads to the saloon entrance is moving, because if it's static, you'll just stay in this main area instead of immediately entering the saloon, which will lead you to another time loss if you do this.
-On the little animation that shows that you're transitioning from one area to another, Move your mouse to B5; this is where the pianist sits

Saloon Part 1
-Start a conversation with the pianist, and move your mouse to the text advance button as fast as you can.
-There will be two boxes of dialogue here, so you only really need to click twice. You can spam click, but I usually just hit all my left click keys at once to get a triple click, which works for me.
-You'll have 3 dialogue choices. Choose the top one, "Why the long face narrowhead?", then advanced through the rest of the text as fast as you can. This sets the flag so that the tumbleweed with the sheet music will appear in the desert later on.
-Talk to the bartender (E2)
-You'll get 3 dialogue options. It doesn't actually matter which one you choose, because they are all 10 dialogue boxes long, so just choose one as fast as you can, then click through the text boxes as fast as you can. After this dialogue, you get the revolver.
-Exit the saloon.

Town A Part 2
-Move towards and talk to the bandit (A3)
-The bandit only has one text box of dialogue before you have two dialogue choices, so I just triple click the text advance so I'm ready to move to the dialogue choices.
-Choose "Not only do I accept your challenge, you are stupid." This is the top dialogue option.
-There's two text boxes of dialogue after here, so spam clicking is pretty ideal here.
-Keep your mouse on the text advance button location
-Bandit Fight (Fight 1)
	-You'll get 3 text boxes of dialogue from your boss , just spam click through these
	-if your mouse is still in position, you can save a bit of time from having to move your mouse to position
	-Keep your mouse on the text advance position
	-Finish the fight (and pray for good RNG)
-You'll get one text box of dialogue here from your boss, so I just triple click through that so I can move my mouse out of it faster
-Enter Town B
	-the arrow is right next to where the bandit was standing, A3

Town B Part 1
-Move your mouse to the text advance position
-Wait right where you are until the bandit starts the dialogue with you
	-You don't want to move towards the bandit, because your mouse will no longer be in position, and you don't save time by moving towards the bandit to start the dialogue faster, because this time will be lost moving back towards E3, and then you just lose time when you move your mouse back to the text advance button.
-Start spam clicking the text advance button
-Before or during the bandit fight, move your mouse towards C5, which is the entrance towards the mayor's office.
-Fight the bandit
-Enter the mayor's office, and on the transition animation, aim your mouse at B4

Mayor's office
-Spam click on tile B4 so you can get the key as fast as possible
-As soon as you hear the "ding", exit the mayor's office. This could probably be done very slightly faster, but for me, it's way too inconsistent, which is why I rely on the audio cue.
-On the transition, aim towards D3

Town B Part 2
-Move towards D3 as fast as possible
	-This is the closest tile to E3 that will activate the dialogue, which will give you the most amount of time to aim your mouse at the text advance button
-Advance through the text (3 boxes) from the 2 bandits and keep your mouse on the text advance position
-Fight the two bandits
	-There's one dialogue box from your boss here. You can just spam click through this one
	-after you do, during the fight, aim your mouse towards the arrow that leads to town A (E3)
-Go back to Town A, on the transition animation aim towards B1

Town A Part 3
-Spam click the gate (b1) so you move towards it as soon as you open it.
-Enter the Desert and on the transition aim towards E3

Desert Entrance Part 1
-Move towards E3, and as soon as you start moving towards it, aim your mouse at the text advance
-The bandit will start dialogue (2 boxes)
	-you won't get all the way to E3, which is fine. Just getting closer to it is good enough
-keep your mouse at the text advance
-fight the bandit
-spam click to advance through the boss's dialogue following the fight.
-Enter the Desert (A3)

Desert
-The navigation to the tribe is as follows
	East
	South
	West
	North
	West
	South
-Aim towards each direction on each transition animation
-You should probably memorize this
-As soon as you see the tumbleweed with sheet music, grab it, even if it's a detour
	-if you don't see the sheet music, the run is dead
-Enter the Tribe (Which happens on the very last south movement)

Tribe
-There's a bunch of dialogue boxes from the bandits, and there will be a gap in between them. There's a 33 frame time save you can technically take if you move one tile to B5, but this only saves time if you can position yourself back to the text advance button before the next text box pops up.
	-This is hard to do though, and 33 frames is not really that much of a time save
-Fight the 3 bandits, and during this fight, position your mouse to point at D3
-Click the "Indian" at D3, Dialogue is as follows
	-[1 text box]
	-"Cuboy my name. Save you my game."
	-[1 text box]
	-"I will give you one gold tooth for your bow and arrow."
	-[3 text boxes]
	-'I'd like to be baptized into Indianity, please!"
	-[1 text box]
	-"I give up. But with cuboy as my witness, I will find out!"
-Click the totem pole.
	-[a bunch of text boxes]
	-"Can I make fun of him too? I am the ultimate bully."
	-[3 text boxes]
	-"I think He's BEAR-ly worth my Cuboy insults!"
	-[a bunch of text boxes]
	-"Hey Bear, I think you're a..."
	-[a bunch of text boxes]
-Talk to the indian
	-"I'd like to be baptized into Indianity, please!"
	-[one text box]
	-"Is it Shines-With-Polish?"
	-[a bunch of text boxes]
-Leave the village towards the east

Desert Entrance Part 2
-Head to the town

Town A Part 4
-Enter the Saloon

Saloon Part 2
-Talk to the pianist (B5)
	-[4 text boxes] Don't spam this cause you'll end up clicking the wrong dialogue box after
	-"It's your lost song." (middle option)
	-[1 text box]
-Talk to the pianist again
	-[2 text boes]
	-"So then, what is the story behind this other song?"
	-[a bunch of text boes]
-Leave the saloon

Town A Part 5
-Head to Town B (A3)

Town B Part 3
-Click the clocktower (E5) TWICE (or really just spam click it I guess)
	-this is a glitch that will make you walk towards the clocktower instead of away from it, which will lower the amount of tiles that you need to travel
-on the animation of the horseman coming down, move to D4
-Click the horseman (D5)
	-[4 text boxes]
	-"I have summoned you, and challenge you to a race!"
	-[a bunch of textboxes]
	-[cuboy moves to A4]
	-[3 text boxes]
	-[cuboy moves to D3]
	-[1 text box]
	-"I'm ready, horse breath!"
-Horse minigame
	-as soon as you choose the last dialogue option, start mashing space
		-space mashing speed here doesn't matter, you just want to start the game as fast as possible
	-Do the minigame and mash that space like there's no tommorow
	-when you hit "It is the winner!", move your mouse to the text advance button and get ready to hit some text boxes
-[A bunch of text boxes]
-Move to train station (B1)

Train station
-[a bunch of textboxes]
-[3 person fight]
-the second you finish this fight and start the victory animation, start mashing spacebar to skip the next cutscene
-horse takes a while to get down, you can move to B3 or D3 ahead of time but I usually just wait for the gear option to show up when I click the horse so I don't accidentally mess up some movement

Final boss
-When you get here, just complete the run regardless of how bad this fight goes.
-The first obstacle will ALWAYS be a tumbleweed. You have to jump a lot later than you think you have to or else you get hit by it and lose 8 seconds
-Just keep dodging the tumbleweed, shooting the bandits, or shooting the bombs
-When you get close enough to padrino, you'll get an option to start mashing spacebar, and it only starts counting for spacebar mashes as soon as the "dial" pops up
-The tumbleweed can be hard to dodge when it's going fast and you're near the front. Just make sure you're looking for the tumbleweed before everything else because the audio cue from the boss isn't fast enough to actually help, and it's the one where you actually need a good reaction time for it.
-On the insult section, just take it nice and slow and don't mess it up. It is literally the last part of the run, and you really do not want to mess it up this late in the game.

Congratulations! You've successfully run Cuboy: Back to the Cubeture Era 1! When you make it big, please let summoning salt know that I made this guide.

This guide is up to date as of 1/28/21

-Yert

Tribe battle skip

This is how I got my WR that I have been saving for like 5 months.

So the idea behind this is that because you can do the indian-totem-indian text exchange before the battle itself, there is no actual need to complete the battle because there's no check in the game that prevents progression if you haven't finished the battle. Your next objective is to go to the saloon in the game anyways, so you can save anywhere from 20-40 seconds (because of the RNG of the battle) by just losing the battle ASAP, then you'll just spawn right back in the saloon.

Updates to speedrunning this game

Updated as of 3/20/21

Now that there's a rule about how many keys you're allowed to set to the same function, there's now a much heavier consideration that must be put onto equipment.

Mashing Spacebar
For the longest time, I had a big problem mashing spacebar quickly. I still don't consider myself particularly fast with mashing spacebar, but I think I'm fast enough now. Through explorations, I've found a few things that helped me. For starters, mechanical keyboards might help, but that's only because the springs on my keyboard are still pretty strong. I think the ideal keyboard would probably be one of the chiclet keyboards like the ones on chromebooks, as those are pretty low profile and spring back very quickly. Another consideration is to not press the spacebar too hard. I found out that when I did this, my next tap would be too early, and would press the spacebar when the button was still depressed, meaning that I would lose an input.  For me, this would be the difference between ~6-7 presses per second and ~10-11 presses per second. It's also significantly more sustainable over long periods of time, such as for the horse race.

Clicking fast
I have somewhat of a background in competitive minecraft so I'm no stranger to fast clicking methods. I have a glorious model O, but for some reason my mouse stopped drag clicking recently, so I had to switch to butterfly clicking. Butterfly clicking (two fingers on one button) is definitely more accessible to every single mouse as opposed to drag clicking which is mouse dependent. Decent butterfly clickers can get around 15CPS, and as long as your mouse is still registering all your clicks, mouse shouldn't matter here.


Useless discoveries
-You can exit and reload to quickly get to whatever entrance you entered the area in. That being said, this isn't actually any faster than walking for any part of the game
-there'll probably be more as i find them

Nome	Autor
Full Speedrunning guide	YertSSBM 4 years ago
Tribe battle skip	YertSSBM 3 years ago
Updates to speedrunning this game	YertSSBM 4 years ago