This is a guide/checklist for submission verifiers.

Verification: — The mods dialog is shown. Only Core and Royalty are permitted to be listed (and Ideology, IF the category allows it — currently there is no category where Ideology is permitted). — The options dialog is shown, and development mode is unchecked. — The game audio is heard, music is uninterrupted, sound effects generated from clicks and such are perfectly in sync with screen actions. (A consistent A/V desync of 1–3 frames throughout the run is ok.) — Incorrect information in the submission is NOT grounds for rejection. Moderator must verify and correct data if necessary. — Category selection matches submission data. Check the main category, check escape type, check scenario, check difficulty. — Scenario selection matches submission data. Select 100% peaceful if difficulty is set as peaceful, merciless if merciless difficulty is set, compromise otherwise. Select story teller. Custom scenarios are prohibited. If the submission is Regular but scenario is naked brutality, choose Naked for the subcategory. If the scenario is naked but the biome is sea ice/ice sheet/extreme desert and the run honors the temperature constraints, choose/keep the biome-based subcategory instead. — If game version is shown on the main screen, enter/correct it in the submission (also recommended to write exact game version (incl. minor number) in moderation comments) ­— World location selection: If subcategory is Sea ice, Ice sheet or Extreme desert, verify the temperature ranges (minimum, maximum from subcategory rules), and for biome (ONLY sea ice in Sea ice, ONLY ice sheet in Ice sheet; Extreme desert and Regular can have any biome) — Character randomization: pay attention to possible video splices, verify audio sync. If player camera and voice is present, verification is easier. — During run: still pay attention to possible video splicing. Make sure that all actions make sense, the player doesn’t suddenly possess items they never acquired, etc. — Music: verify correct pitch & tempo (by ear, or by measuring time between a certain elements in music, compare with reliable source). Do same for sfx if possible. — Verify that the goal is achieved (someone thinks a room is wondrous, at least 99 beer is selected, …) — Verify that no prohibited actions happen (such as buying hops in a beer% run) — In Sea ice/Ice sheet/Extreme desert submission, if the outside temperature at any moment falls/rises beyond the required threshold, the run becomes Regular or Naked instead (NOT grounds for rejection!). This restriction applies only to the primary colony. On tiles where the player is only caravaning (such as looting ancient dangers) and has not built anything significant (a mortar / fortifications / temporary sleeping spot for clearing an enemy base is not significant), this restriction does not apply. — Verify that after the goal is achieved, everything that the rules require to be proven/shown is fulfilled (for example, end credits automatic scrolling start, panning over ancient danger showing every nook and surroundings, showing the label of the hat). — If the player used a run timer, verify that the timer runs at same rate as video does. Popular timers are more trustworthy than custom ones. This can be used to help verifying against splices or changing of video speed, but should NOT be the only means. — In uncertain cases, ask help on #mod-chat on Discord.

Language: — Use a dictionary if necessary. It is recommended that players using non-English versions put translations of all relevant terms in the submission text.

Timing: — As a general rule, ignore player’s run timer. — If watching on YouTube, select highest quality level. When the scenario explanation dialog disappears, rewind to the 1 or 2 seconds before it does, pause video, use "," and "." (comma, period) to frame advance backwards and forwards. Advance to the moment when next full second begins, and keep advancing. Count frames. The frame where the dialog disappears, write count down. For example, if you start counting from exactly when 4:09 becomes 4:10 and the dialog is still visible, and the dialog disappears 13 presses after that, run starts at 4:10 + 13/30 seconds (if video is 30fps), 13/60 seconds (if video is 60fps). Check the framerate. — Do similarly with the time end condition (doublecheck category rules). — Subtract the two times. For example, if you have 1:30:20+21/60 for end time and 4:10+13/60 for start time, first convert these times to seconds (1×3600 + 30×60 + 20 + 21/60) and (4×60 + 10 + 13/60) and substract them. In this case, result is 5170.1333333. Subtract hours (divide 5170 by 3600, you get 1, so subtract 1×3600): 1 hour + 1570.1333 seconds. Subtract minutes (divide 1570 by 60, you get 26, so subtract 26×60) ⇒ 1 hour + 26 minutes + 10.13333. That is the run time. Round to milliseconds: 1:26:10.133. — Enter the corrected timing in the submission. — Another good alternative is to use a tool such as youtube-dl/yt-dlp to download the video, and do the same frame-by-frame checking in your favorite media player, if it possesses that function. — EXCEPTION: If the video is low fps (30 or lower) or has lots of lag, and the player has a trustworthy run timer and the player’s timer is running the the entire time of the timed section of the run, you can use the readings from the player’s timer to improve accuracy. For example, if at 4:10+7/30 when the run starts player’s timer says 0.024, and at 1:30:20+11/30 when the run ends player’s timer says 1:26:10.151, you can subtract these two and judge the time as 1:26:10.127. As a general rule though, players’ own timers are to be ignored.

Rejected submissions: — If the rejection reason was trivial, the submission does not need to be edited. Explain clearly in the rejection message why the run was rejected, for example which rule it violated. — If the rejection reason was complex, such as splicing detected, adding relevant information in the submission text as moderator comments may be a good idea (see below). To do this, first edit the submission but UNCHECK the box “automatically verify the run”. Save, and then reject it.

Accepted submissions: — Correct the mis-entered fields in the submission. — If you changed something, or have anything to say about the run, add a comment to the end of the comment field in the submission. Mark your comment distinctly so that it is clear that your text is not part of the player’s comments. Use markup. Bisqwit recommends the following: empty line, dash line (------), bolded “Moderator notes:” and then the notes. You can also use the subheading markup, maybe. — Use clear and unambiguous language (do not abbreviate moderator as mod, as mod also means a game modification). Remember that the player or any random person who reads your text might not be a native English speaker. — In the moderator notes, put all information that you manually checked in case the run needs to be rejudged later (possibly years later, for example if category rules change or if we add more input fields), especially if said information was through non-negligible effort. — Announce WRs and notable runs (and sometimes even less notable runs on quieter times) on Discord, use previous announcements as pattern.

Overturned decisions: — Accepted submissions can be rejected (for example, if cheating is detected, or the run is duplicate and there is no good reason to keep the duplicate). A missing video is not grounds for retroactive rejection unless the run is within top-three. — Rejected submissions can be accepted if the rejection reason was invalid (for example, run uses ice sheet instead of sea ice, but ice sheet is allowed as an exception for the category) or if the run targeted a category that didn’t exist but was later created. — Overturning is done only with serious caution and by moderators only. — If the category rules change later in such a manner that existing runs would have to be rejected, as a general principle the category is turned into a misc old category and a new category is created instead. We don’t like to delete runs. — If a category is about to be deleted, but there exist rejected/pending submissions for that category, the category is turned into a misc old category instead. Otherwise, the rejected/pending submissions would be deleted.