Hey Red, good luck with your run if I am about I'll try to catch some of it. Could I ask that when you finish the run could you take down what the IGT is (done by saving the game) as we are in the process of deciding if we are going to use that or RTA I wouldn't want a valid record to be struck off on a technicality.

I see both of you had the full branch of each gang’s story in one go that may be the fastest way but what I found in SR1 is that contrary of what seems logical often chopping the story missions up allows you to use activities as a way to travel while adding respect needed or that when a mission finishes in a strange location it may be closer to one of the other gang missions or an activity that starts and finishes in the same local e.g. fight club. Then after you can get back to the previous mission thread using the taxis to fast travel.

Hopefully I will start routing this game in the next couple of weeks. I want to do one last run of SR1 getting that game to sub 5:30 (hopefully close to 5:20) before going to SR2.

1. Any% runs will normally be done on the fastest difficulty so in this case casual. Though Saints Row does allow you to switch between the difficulties durring gameplay so if you wanted to death warp you could switch to the hardest one in order to do it quickly. Any other runs on different difficulties will often be classed as a different run.

2. When to start and end the timer is generally going to be when you first gain control over the character and when you lose control upon completing the last mission so what you describe will be correct. We will have to come to a final decision on what timing method we will use before anything though. If we do in fact switch to using IGT the timer will just be vanity as the game is used to keep the official time itself.

In order to have a fair system a few things need to be cleared up before issues arise. If you have anything you would like to input please do so in a befitting manner all opinions are welcome. If you have an issue that is not mentioned that you would to bring up please do so. Remember any that does take place can and will be subject to change, by comity like this, in the future.

Up to now we have been measuring runs according to RTA. Now it has become clear that loading times are playing a huge part in the final times people have been getting. If the games took an hour or so to run this wouldn’t be much of an issue but the saints row series of speedruns are 4-7 hours long and with quite a lot of loading screens. As a result the difference in people’s PC specs is going to play a huge part in who is competitive. In order to level the laying field it has been proposed we switch to using IGT to determine what the record is so as to reflect skill as muc as possible. 2, 3 and 4 all display the IGT upon saving. 1 however does not and with the final mission locking you out of the game and replacing you back at your last save I propose that the internal timer of the console is use to track time.

A second issue is what kind of verification we should allow. With only a few active runners of which only a couple are able to stream should we lessen the need for a video submission. This could be changed at a later time if the community does grow.

Also more clearly definded categories and sub categories, gimmick and the like. Up to now I have been reluctant to just throw up a set of rule for each category or even categories themselves as they are going to be wide in range with co-op that counts individually for each player, DLC, console and PC runs, single segment and segmented runs, multigame runs (PC trilogy, console Tetralogy, 1 and 2 or 3 and 4) and any combination of the above we could be looking at 10 plus possible categories of just any% variations add to that 100% and gimmick runs like SR4 all clusters these need to be set in stone.

Do you have an idea of what kind of time would be a good one for a full game run? is sub 6h 30m unreasonable or is 7h the target.

My final plan is to do a Tetralogy run of the saints row series 1,3 and 4 can be reasonable done in 13h 30m so a 6h 30m SR2 making it a round 20h run would be nice.

I am planning to start to route this game after I am finished with one any info you have on the route of this game would be helpful.

Started routing this game recently did my first full run and got 5:49:xx which I hope to bring down to sub 5:30and maybe beyond as I had issues with gang take backs that wasted time.

I have what I think is the best/ most efficient way to get the respect needed which is:

1)The 4 snatch mission, the 2 that get respect bossing items being done before all others, using the indestructible taxi glitch for the car used during this activity so that time isn't wasted either repairing the car or switching with the added benefit of making it far safer. 2)The 3 insurance frauds using a police car and crashing into other car to get the windscreen catapult. 3)The demo derby 4)And the last 3-4 levels are made up of tags that are nicely placed, Hostages that are done on route in short drives that are need and delivery of common/ conveniently cars on the chop shop lists saving them in the garage throughout the run and dropped of when in one glut when in the area.

I have a basic route and mission order but it is ever-changing as while there is a taxi delivery service it obviously takes time to use it and as most of the missions are started from one area and often finish in that same area it is getting a string of which mission finish where to chain them and opening up strongholds and getting them done in a logical order.

There is a few strats I found to speed up, skip parts or make safe some mission which I’ll edit into this post later on.

I did a run or two a couple of months back to update my PB (now 3:54 IGT) and found a few thing to clean up the run so I'll put them here in the hope they will help someone else.

During Purple Ops after you kill Cyrus if you dive instead of run across the walkway it will skip the tripping animation.

New, earlier, place to get the void is as soon as you first enter the main simulation instead of driving straight to friendly fire go to the army base island and get the eagle that spawns in the middle of the area . From there fly that up to the platform that the void spawns don’t worry if when you get there it is not visible fly above the platform then jump out your heli onto the platform and it will have spawn.

At the first gun shop buy the smg with all level 1 upgrades and the shotgun with all level 1 upgrades this will be the only shopping you do. Shogun is for wardens smg is for all other enemies. Get back in the void clear the police at the shop, fly to the next location and clear the aliens finally fly to Kenzi’s warehouse land the void run in and hit the trigger as soon as you do get back in the void and fly to the next mission’s start point while Kenzi is talking. As soon as the mission ends save the void and use it forever more in the run.

Taking the clusters in a vehicle during Learn the rules, where they are first introduced to the cluster system, will skips the power-up animation.

When fighting Wardens if you are touching it when prompted to dive in it, it will skip a lot of the animation.

At the end of escape when the aliens are coming across the bridge you can just hide behind the boxes. If you put yourself so you can see through the gap between the 2 boxes they will rarely path around it so they can’t attack you as they try to hit you through the boxes.

After the fire tutorial reload the autosave this will make you warp over to the other side of the map you can also get the void from the simulation menu instead of calling it in saving a little more time.

During Ghost in the Machine there is a way to skip the animation for the second CID you try by taking the first one side ways with your back to the second ones trigger then spamming the trigger button during the backing away part of the first animation. The CID will just drop to the ground and put you straight to the 3rd and final one.

On the same mission when you have to download to increase the speed call in the void and it will skip the typing animation. In the very next day side scroller it is quicker to jump kick across it than to walk.

During the rescuing of Ben King dive into the markers that make you reminisce and you can get it so you skip the reminiscing. The timing of the dive is finicky the first one is quite hard I will get in 40-50% of the time while the second one is seemingly easier but I only get it 75% of the time. When you get it you get the same dropping animation you get when you skip the scripted fall in SR3

In the girl who hates the 50s at the party you need to destroy all of the CIDs that are circling the shield don’t waste ammo use the turret and before you disable the satellite kill all the aliens and portals in the immediate area otherwise you will keep getting interuped.

In the girl who hates the 50s when the propaganda trucks come after you it is far easier if you stand behind one of the indestructible telegraph pole so that they are not constantly hitting you.

In key master you can skip the battery collection animation by calling for the void after prompting to collect.

In punch the shark when you are waiting for cid to hack the shield rather than fighting you can hide under the stairs, go behind them crouch then walk into them you will partially clip through them, it is a nice place to stay hidden from all the enemies until you can progress. You will sometime get knock out of your place but you can just return there preserving ammo and not risk getting killed.

In the final mission where you destroy the simulation reloading the checkpoint will let you call for the void which makes defending the portals far easier.

When you get the health increase upgrade it will fill your health bar back up so if you ever are near death this is a useful trick to survive without having to slow down and hide in cover. I personally use it on the mission where you go on to the Zin ship.

Another neat trick is what I call the weapon cache boost basically if you going the weapon cache it will give you a ammo boost on your weapons and as it can be accessed in the gateway menu it is well worth doing it from time to time when you re-enter the simulation.

In my route there is only 3 power up upgrades I get so minimal clusters are needed and they can all be taken in places you are waiting for thing to happen they are the following Blast recharge ASAP helps to take down Wardens quicker, Telekinesis recharge before Emergency situation to speed up throwing the clones in the gateway and jump height increase before key master where you are inside the building when CID is putting the key in the lock.

TBH I haven't been actively working on SR3 for a couple of month. I was routing SR2 and tried it there and it worked well enough for me to try it then add it into both the any% and 100% route in SR3

An alternate route for the kenzi activities mission set is after “pimps up hoes down” take the vulture from the crib then fly to the mayhem and land. Activate the mission then do it in the heli using the on board rockets trying to end as close as possible to trail blazing. After trail blazing drive around the corner to heli assault and as heli assault comes to the end fly towards “Ho boat” saying within the red circle not to fail.

This route is slightly faster than the OOB warp (15-30secs due to faster completion of mayhem) but there are more variables. There is a way to make the OOB route equally as fast by using a car to knock down the fences between the start point and the café where “killbane live” starts but it takes a bit of grinding to get down and even then 1 mistake will cost quite a bit of time.