Prenote: I was posting this guide mainly to archive it. But it also contains the most important strategies of the any% run. The route is not up-to-date anymore. Source: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564589-star-control-ii/faqs/26687

#Star Control 2 speedrun walkthrough Version 1.00, November 2nd, 2003 by lmfurb; lmfurb@hotmail.com

This is not a regular walkthrough of Star Control 2. It is a "speedrun" walkthrough, meaning a guide to winning Star Control 2 as fast as possible. It is intended for experienced players looking for a new challenge. However, it can also be used by first-time players as a concise description of only the actions required to win the game, and no more.

As far as I know, the following course is the fastest possible way to win Star Control 2, in terms of virtual game time. It was successfully tested on The Ur-Quan Masters v0.2. Excepting the Spathi on Pluto, it involves no meetings with any unnecessary races, not even the Melnorme. Minerals are harvested only on 3 planets in the Sol system at the very beginning of the game. After that, RU is earned only by selling gift ships and destroying enemy craft. The course requires going into quasispace a total of 11 times and visiting the starbase 4 times (including the required first and last visits). The total number of visits to the starbase can even be reduced to 3 if you are particularly skilled at melee (or willing to save and reload your game dozens of times to win a hard fight).

Note that in Star Control 2, time passes in regular space, hyperspace and quasispace, but not during menu manipulation, planet landings, conversations or fights. Therefore, we can afford to make several landings to grab all the minerals on Pluto, the Moon and Mercury at the beginning of the game --- however, we do not harvest any more minerals after this point. Three points of general advice:

1. To save time, always plan ahead on the direction your ship is turned. Have it pointing in the right direction when you enter hyperspace, and also (less importantly) within planetary systems to reach planets and moons as fast as possible. This is especially important early in the game, when there is a very small window of time in which you can enter the quasispace portal without needing to wait.
2. Unless you have to avoid enemy ships in hyperspace, always use autopilot: it goes in a straighter (and therefore faster) line than you can manually.
3. Try to avoid getting into any unnecessary encounters, fights or otherwise. They stop your ship in its tracks and can waste fuel and/or crew.

For the best time, follow precisely the instructions below, without dallying around or going to any unnecessary systems or planets. Follow the given order of actions exactly: there are almost no deviations you can make from it without wasting time. In the following walkthrough, whenever I use the word "go", I mean travel normally through hyperspace or regular space without using the portal spawner. Whenever I say "warp", I mean use the portal spawner to go into quasispace, choose the portal closest to your destination, and then go there. I assume you already know which quasispace portals lead where: if in doubt, find a map of them somewhere on the web.

##Speed walkthrough:

1. Go to Pluto, get 5 tzo crystals and convince Spathi ship to join you.
2. Go to Mercury and get all metals. Don't go to any other planets --- if you waste any time at all you will miss the quasispace portal. It's better to go to Mercury than to Io for radioactives because Mercury is closer to Earth.
3. Go to the Moon, get all metals, get abandoned base.
4. Go to the starbase, give radioactives, admit base was abandoned, kill Ilwrath with Spathi.
5. Equip max engine speed, 2 turning jets (same as before), 1 half-full crew pod, 1 lander, 4 fuel units with at least 180 fuel. To buy all this, you'll need to sell everything else including your weapons, storage bay and both ships. If later you hit a Slylandro probe while defenseless, run away.
6. Go all the way to Alpha Pavonis VII (55.0 x 800.0), get Ur-quan warp pod.
7. Go to the quasispace portal (appears April 17th-19th just above the top star in Circini constellation, 43.8 x 637.2). If you hurried as much as possible and didn't hit any Slylandro, you should be able to just barely make it into the portal before it closes.
8. Go to Arilou homeworld, get portal spawner, trigger talking pet event.
9. Warp to moon of Burvixie homeworld (Arcturus I-A, 965.0 x 577.0), get Burvixie caster.
10. Warp into Ilwrath space. Go to Pkunk homeworld (Gamma Krueger I, 51.0 x 55.0), get 4 Pkunk, get Pkunk ultron part (Clear Spindle).
11. Go to Ilwrath home star system (Alpha Taurii, 022.9 x 366.6), use Burvixie caster, order them to attack Thraddash.
12. (At this point you should be almost out of fuel.) Warp to Sol, talk to commander, sell 2 out of 3 Arilou, sell 3 out of 4 Pkunk; buy all but 2 turning jets and as much fuel as possible. (Optional: sell your last Pkunk and buy 2 Earthlings instead, to avoid any other stop at the starbase. This course of action will shave a few days off your final time but means you'll have some very hard fights ahead with only 1 Arilou and 2 Earthlings vs. 5 Mycon, 10 Umgah and 5 Druuge, and later have to kill the Sa-Matra without a Pkunk.)
13. Warp beside Mycon space, get Mycon eggshell (Beta Copernicus I, 600.8 x 263.1).
14. Go to Mycon homeworld (Epsilon Scorpii I) and ask about shattered worlds.
15. Go to Syreen homeworld (Betelgeuse I, 415.0 x 375.0 ), talk about deep children, show eggshell.
16. Warp to Syreen ship vault (Epsilon Cameleopardalis I-A, 593.7 x 393.7 ), get Syreen ships.
17. Go back to Syreen homeworld, have steamy love scene with commander.
18. Go to Orz space (Vulpeculae constellation), ally with Orz.
19. Get Taolo shield (Delta Vulpeculae, 372.1 x 261.9, 3rd moon of gas giant).
20. Warp to Mycon space, go to homeworld (Epsilon Scorpii I) and mention Organon.
21. Go get sun device (Beta Brahe I, 639.5 x 231.2 ) and kill 5 Mycon with your Arilou. (Optionally: kill more Mycon with your Arilou for RU.)
22. Warp to Druuge space, go to Druuge homeworld (Zeta Persei I, 946.9 x 280.6 ), trade eggshell for Druuge ultron part (Rosy Sphere). Just offer to sell the eggshell and he will automatically offer the ultron part instead of the usual ship. (Optionally: sell Burvixie caster for fuel.)
23. Warp to Sol. Buy Earthlings, Orz, turning jets and fuel. (This step is optional. You should actually have enough fuel to make it through the rest of the game: skip this step if you think you are able to kill 10 Umgah and 5 Druuge with what you have.)
24. Warp near Umgah space. Note: it's slightly faster to use the portal on the bottom-right of Umgah space than the one in Arilou space. Go to talking pet (Gamma Orionis I, 192.3 x 587.8 ), kill 10 Umgah.
25. Go get Thraddash ultron part (Aqua Helix, Zeta Draconis I, 277.6 x 867.3 ). You won't meet any Thraddash, as the Ilwrath should have gone to war with them by now.
26. Warp to Utwig space, get ultron from a Supox ship (e.g. at Beta Librae) and fix ultron by using the 3 ultron parts.
27. Go to an Utwig star (e.g. Epsilon Hyades) and give ultron to a ship.
28. Go get Utwig bomb (Zeta Hyades VI, 850.0 x 937.2 ), kill 5 Druuge.
29. Warp to (former) Ilwrath space, go to Chmmr homeworld (Procyon, 074.0 x 226.8 ), use sun device.
30. You will be automatically transported to Sol. Buy a large fleet of Chmmr, Orz, and Utwig with your infinite RU but keep your Pkunk.
31. Warp to Sa-Matra (Delta Crateris, 620.0 x 593.5 ). Use talking pet. Kill the remaining Ur-quan and Kohr-ah with Chmmr/Orz/Utwig. Destroy the Sa-Matra's shields by spinning around repeatedly with your Pkunk, use a Chmmr to clean up all the Sa-Matra's bullets and then have it warp escape, and finally enter the front of the Sa-Matra with your flagship.

Approx. date at end of game: Nov 15th, 2155 (i.e. 9 game months after the beginning). This will vary somewhat depending on how much you hurried and how many small slips you made in the course of the game.

#Bonus: SC2 Lazy Walkthrough

If like me you're sick of shuttling to and from Betelgeuse to complete the boring quests, there's a fun, easy and extremely cheesy way to win without needing to do too much legwork.

Remember that 2 out of 3 of the key items (the Utwig Bomb and the Sun Device) can be obtained through a planet landing, and it's only the pesky infinite number of enemy ships that prevent you from just going down and grabbing the thing.

Solution: let the Kohr-Ah fleet of death do your dirty work for you! All you need to do is get the Talking pet:

• Alpha Pavonis VII (55.0 x 800.0 ), get Ur-quan warp pod
• Arilou homeworld (appears April 17th-19th just above the top star in Circini constellation, 43.8 x 637.2 ), get Portal spawner
• Delta Vulpeculae (372.1 x 261.9 ), 3rd moon of gas giant, ally with an Orz and get Taolo shield
• Gamma Orionis I (192.3 x 587.8 ), get Talking pet and stop the Slylandro probes (Beta Corvi gas giant).

Then go to some empty region of hyperspace, take out a book, and float idly there. (You can go around doing things if you feel like it, but whatever you do, don't send the Thraddash or the Utwig to fight the Kohr-Ah --- remember, the Kohr-Ah are your friends.)

Around February 2159, the Kohr-Ah sphere of influence will start moving ominously through space, killing everything in its path. When they annihilate the Mycon, head to Beta Brahe I (639.5 x 231.2 ) and yoink the Sun device. When they get to the Utwig, head to Zeta Hyades VI (850.0 x 937.2 ) and grab the Utwig Bomb. Then just head to the Chmmr homeworld (Procyon, 074.0 x 226.8 ) --- they won't annihilate the Chmmr; however, they do conveniently annihilate the Ilwrath --- and you're already ready to fight the Sa-Matra. Thanks, Kohr-Ah!

This technique does have the slight downside that it involves the total destruction of nearly all the sentient species in the quadrant. But hey, you never really liked them that much anyway.