PSA: Space Speedruns are now a thing

[Fradow]

For some reasons, I started to think about playing the game a different way: speedrun the tear, no exploits barred.

While formulating a strategy, I realized something super interesting: while previously, before Mergedown, it was not possible to launch a rocket before cycle ~80 (a bit less with a Dupe that do task aligned with its interests, but not THAT much) because of the Rocket Piloting skill, we now have the "Exosuit Training" skill offered as a trait.

This means a Dupe can be given the 3 research skills and then have Rocket Piloting at its 4th skill. A Dupe constantly working on something they are interested in will reach that at slightly before cycle 32.

 

This now offers a way to beat the previous record of cycle 43 to launch a rocket (I'm not aware of any other faster space-focused speedrun) which relied on a bug in old versions:

 

After doing a first trial run, I think it's very possible to launch a rocket around that timeframe, with proper seed selection and bug exploiting. I'll post in more details later.

Let the speedrun take off!

[mathmanican]

No exploits barred? Unless this was fixed (I've been out of the loop for a while), you can get a super productive dupe high morale, and then dig a neutronium tile to get every trait.  You can do this before cycle 10.   

[sakura_sk]

3 minutes ago, mathmanican said:

Unless this was fixed

Not fixed yet but only available in spaced out at the moment 

[lee1026]

Does the exploit of using debug mode count? If so, I can do it cycle 1.

[Fradow]

7 hours ago, mathmanican said:

No exploits barred? Unless this was fixed (I've been out of the loop for a while), you can get a super productive dupe high morale, and then dig a neutronium tile to get every trait.  You can do this before cycle 10.   

As @sakura_sk said above, it's Spaced Out only currently, as it requires the Hazmat Digging skill. Anyway, even getting a Steam Rocket up by cycle 32 is going to be a challenge, any earlier is going to be really really challenging.

Actually, the "No exploits barred" will probably come with a caveat: the Care package duplication bug, while giving a small advantage, is tedious as hell, and I value my sanity, which is why I'll probably play without it. As advantages go, it's not as much as you'd expect anyway, since a lot of interesting things are locked behind a minimum cycle count. It allows to get:

• infinite food by duplicating any food, Muckroot being a prime target because it doesn't expire. This can be replaced by planting dusk caps/mealwood in flower pots, which can easily be done super early in a forest start.
• infinite Lime by duplicating Pokeshell Spawns. This can be replaced by a nicely chosen Irregular Oil seed with an Oil Biome nearby (which you'll need for Petroleum anyway) that has enough Fossils for your target Steel amount.
• infinite cold water by duplicating a water package. This can be replaced by a nicely chosen seed that has a convenient water geyser nearby.

Other resources like Algae/Dirt/Ores aren't going to be an issue for such a small cycle count.

5 hours ago, lee1026 said:

Does the exploit of using debug mode count? If so, I can do it cycle 1.

Obviously, to retain a modicum of challenge, a speedrun should be survival only, no sandbox/debug allowed. There is no challenge otherwise.

 

[zach123b]

what part needs steel?  if you know the seed then you know where the frozen asteroid and tear are,  then just co2 engine to there.  you may need to rebuild the co2 engine but i imagine you could do the rescue thing and have the rocket self destruct sending the dupe to the nearest asteroid and rebuild as you go.  probably need some luck but that's the fastest strategy i can think of

[sakura_sk]

7 hours ago, zach123b said:

if you know the seed then you know where the frozen asteroid and tear are,

*Base game

[Fradow]

8 hours ago, zach123b said:

what part needs steel?  if you know the seed then you know where the frozen asteroid and tear are,  then just co2 engine to there.  you may need to rebuild the co2 engine but i imagine you could do the rescue thing and have the rocket self destruct sending the dupe to the nearest asteroid and rebuild as you go.  probably need some luck but that's the fastest strategy i can think of

The post is about Vanilla. While it's not specified in the post, this forum section is about Vanilla.

Rockets need Steel in Vanilla. A bit of Steel is also required for Bunker Tiles/Doors, if those are used in the speedrun.

CO2 engine is in Spaced Out and not available in Vanilla. You need Steam Engine to unlock Petroleum Engine, then Petroleum Engine to unlock Hydrogen Engine in order to go to the Tear.

 

[zach123b]

ah sorry, i forgot i was in the vanilla forums.  this seems much more impressive considering it'll take a hydrogen rocket and such.  i look forward to this endeavor

i would like to contribute that you can skill wipe a dupe with a skill trait and get an additional skill point.  then you could complete research faster, i think that's the limiting factor for a speedrun by 32 cycles.  if that doesn't help, at least it'll be less save scumming to get the skill points quickly.  i think it is possible, but extremely rare, to get a dupe with 2 bonus skill traits