This guide aims to serve as an overall speedrunning guide for Everspace 1 with a focus on getting the best times (in the standard difficulties) rather than consistency. I tried to touch on all of the things I learned while improving my runs and things I keep in mind during a run.

You can find the speedrun website/leaderboards here: https://www.speedrun.com/everspace

Almost all speedruns are done with maxed out perks and unlocks, but there is no rule against not having everything maxed. You do need Encounters and a completed story however.

I might make a separate guide for Hardcore runs later. Let me know if you have any questions/comments/requests so I can improve this guide!

In each normal zone (each ‘area’ or ‘level’), you have 12 seconds to work with before the jump cooldown wears off (shown at top right in fuel gauge) and the jump out marker appears. In a run without perfect RNG, these 12 seconds are essential - make them count.

• You can use action freeze to look around without the run timer ticking up if you need to. However, most of the time it's only really necessary for locating a jump suppressor (look for a small blue glow on an object).
  
• Sprint to get to what you need and make sure you're in a position to start charging the jump as soon as its available.
  
  • You pretty much only have time for one stop, two with the teleporter and if you're quick.
    
  • Any second spent not charging your jump while it is available is a second wasted.
    
  • If you need it, prioritize fuel, crafting resources, and nanobots.

Jump Suppressors[everspace.fandom.com]

• Not always a run ender, but if you don't get to them quickly (within 7 seconds - takes 5 seconds to hack) you will lose a few seconds of time. The Sentinel has more leeway (within 9.5 seconds).
  
• Once you get close, just fly in quick close circles around it while hacking and you'll avoid enough damage.
  
• If you have a Jump Stabilizer, use it ASAP! It will save 10-11 seconds by instantly completing the jump cooldown and removing the suppression. For consistency in harder difficulties, it can be worth saving them for frigates and drone carriers only.

Jump Gates[everspace.fandom.com]

Jump gate locations are somewhat different because there is no jump cooldown. You have no time to use to get anything, so get to the gate ASAP and ignore everything else unless you can get it on the way without wasting any time.

• What I like to do with the Scout is to spam my teleporter button as fast as possible as soon as the area loads (you can move and use devices while the screen fades in from black)
  
  • Usually you’ll run out of energy before you get there, so use an Energy Injector if you’re far enough away to save a second.
    
  • With full energy consumption mods on your teleporter from Throng, you’ll need to be careful not to go past it. Spam it about 7-10 times and wait until you can actually see if you’re there or not before using it more.
    
  • The jump gate is always generated nearly straight forward from where you jump in.

Where to go?[everspace.fandom.com]

• After jumping out, feel free to take your time picking the best path. The run timer does not count up while in the sector map menu.
  
• Always aim for the shortest paths and Ancient Depots[everspace.fandom.com] (red glyph symbol) of course.
  
• If possible, aim for service stations on the way and lower risk locations. Lower risk might mean a lower chance of getting a jump suppressor.
  
• Most natural hazards don’t affect speedruns, but might as well avoid them if you can, just in case.

One of the most important resources in Everspace? Nah, don’t need it.

…

Okay, if you’re just starting out and you’re okay with subpar RNG to get a run on the board, for consistency's sake you will likely need to get a good amount of fuel as you go through the sectors.
Keep in mind that:

• The Interceptor, Gunship, and Sentinel have enough starting fuel for six jumps (150)
  
• The Scout has enough fuel for five jumps (125)
  
• An average run (decent Ancient Warp RNG) will have around 10-12 normal zones/jumps total, so you will need around 250-300 fuel total if you don’t risk any lucky jumps.
  
• The lucky jump chance is 60%. Having less than 25 fuel (but more than 0) does not affect this chance nor does it matter in any way, but it is burned anyway when you jump.
  
• The Scout and Sentinel can usually survive two unlucky 0 fuel jumps without any repairs, the Interceptor and Gunship can survive more.

Fuel Sources

With those points in mind, here are some of the best sources of fuel (see here[www.speedrun.com] for a different fuel guide):

• The absolute best source of fuel is fuel deposit asteroids. You have a very high chance of finding at least one in zones with ‘vertical’ asteroids like this. Each one often drops around 40-50 fuel! Without the Ancient Weapon, and you have multiple stops to get to, you might want to have a light missile to instantly destroy it to save time.
  
• If you have the credits, service stations are very good for restocking. You’ll need to spend your 12 seconds in previous zones killing enemies for credits and looting any random credit drops around. They tend to have at least one jump’s worth of fuel, but can have more. At 200 creds per 10 fuel, you’ll need 1000 credits to get 50 fuel (2 jumps worth).
  
• If you find Tareen and you have 1-2k credits, sometimes he will have a relatively expensive trade for enough fuel to completely refill your tank from whatever amount you currently have. Regular traders can sometimes have fuel trades as well, but don’t count on it.
  
• G&B Fuel Freighters can be good, but it’s pretty random if you get a good amount or not. They generate with a different number of fuel tanks that tend to drop around 5 fuel each, so a minimum of 10 fuel (2 tanks) or more than enough for another jump.
  
• Most G&B structures and some abandoned stations tend to have fuel tanks (look for the orange glowing ones) which drop around 5-10 fuel also, but it is annoying and time consuming to collect all of it without a tractor beam.
  
• Other than that, you can just get it as random drops like any other resource.

Saving Fuel

• The Plasma-Powered Jump item (can be obtained from starting loot) will save you 25 fuel, and avoid the 3.5s or 5s charge time as a bonus. If you have one, make sure you use it the instant the jump maker appears (go into the menu and use it directly rather than holding your consumable button).
  
• Okkar Wormholes will also save 25 fuel, but they tend to waste a few more seconds than a normal jump out would (esp. with the Scout’s shorter charge time) and you can’t choose your destination afterwards.

As for why you don’t need fuel in a perfect run: even with the Scout, you will have enough fuel to make all the jumps needed, and without needing to go for a lucky jump too. You’ll see why in the next section.

This is where the killer run RNG comes into play - the key to getting absolute minimum times.

Zone Totals

Each sector has a set amount of zones that you need to go through to complete it. Sometimes, it just happens to generate in a wacky way that makes it so that there is a path with one fewer jump or zone than ‘normal’. It can be difficult to see sometimes if the dotted lines are in the same spot. Sometimes I call these ‘natural skips’.

• Sector 2 - usually 4, min 3
  
• Sector 3 - usually 5, min 4
  
• Sector 4 - usually 5, min 4
  
• Sector 5 - usually 6, min 5
  
• Sector 6 - usually 6, min 5

Here is an example of an easily spotted short path in Sector 2 (3 zones instead of 4):
Here[imgur.com] is an example of a wacky short path in Sector 2 (from current zone, can go directly to jump gate). This is more common in later sectors where there are more paths.

These tend to be somewhat rare, and you can get pretty good times without them. However, if you’re pushing for the best possible time you will need each sector to have a short path.

Ancient Warps

Two Ancient Depots/Warp Gates generate in each run, in Sector 2, 3, 4, or 5. Each one will ‘skip’ a certain amount of zones: at minimum 2, at maximum 6.

Basically, you are looking for 6-skips from both warps and if you don’t get that then it’s a subpar run.
Every time you get to an ancient depot you should be looking at the map and counting how many zones you have left in the sector (including the jump gate zone) along the shortest path.Once you get out of the warp, immediately open the map (you will always be in the next sector with a 6 skip), and count how many zones you went past. Add those two numbers up to see how many skips you got from that warp.

As far as I can tell, the game picks where to put you after a warp based on a randomly picked skip amount and by traveling down a random path like you would normally, which means that it can unfortunately avoid a short path/natural skip if it goes the wrong way, depending on the sector generation.

Total Jumps

With a total of 12 skips from the Ancient warps, and a short path in each sector, the total number of jumps you need to do comes to a grand total of 4, so 100 fuel to complete.
There are 21 zones total generated along the shortest paths in the entire run (again with perfect RNG, and not including Sector 7). 5 are jump gates and 2 are Ancient Depots.

• 21 - 5 -2 = 14, then 10 normal zones are skipped equaling 4 normal zones to jump out of.
  
• 2 jump gates are skipped each time so there are 3 jump gate zones to jump out of.

Speedruns for Everspace are based on the “Duration” time shown on the “You Win!” screen at the end of a run. This makes it easy for everyone to have consistent timings on all run submissions.

The run timer does NOT count while in:

• Loading screens
  
• ALL menus (sector map, stations, inventory, etc.)
  
• Action Freeze / Photo Mode

The run timer DOES count while in:

• Initial fade-in and exiting jump animation when entering a zone
  
• All jump out animations (the blue effect and fade to black, takes about 3.5 seconds), includes ancient warp out
  
• NPC cutscenes

For figuring out how long runs take, Everspace has many ‘hard timings’ as I call them, or things that you can’t avoid:

• The 12 second Jump Cooldown
  
• Charging a regular jump (3.5s on Scout, 5s on all other ships)
  
• Charging the jump gate (3.5s on Sentinel, 5s on all other ships)
  
• Ancient Monolith opening animation (about 7s)
  
• As mentioned before, the 3.5s jump out animation for jumps, jump gates, and ancient warps

For regular zones, these hard timings lead to a perfect minimum of 19 seconds.

However, there also many ‘soft timings’ which are based on what the player has and does:

• Reaching the Jump Gate and starting the charge (at minimum 2s with perfect teleporting)
  
• Killing the Ancient Warden and starting the monolith animation (around 9-10 seconds at best with Ancient Weapon)
  
• Finding the jump out marker and starting the charge (can sometimes take a second if it is in the opposite direction, more if its blocked by something)

So for the three individual zone types, the roughly best possible times are:

• Ancient Depots - 19.5 seconds
  
• Jump Gates - 10.5 seconds
  
• Normal zones - 19 seconds

Note that the Hall of Fame in the hangar shows a different time from what the run end screen does (usually around ~7s shorter). Ignore it, we don’t know why it’s different. Best guess is that it saves the time for the hall of fame before saving the time shown at the end screen, or it stops counting the jump out animation from Sector 7 or something like that.

Loadouts

Choosing which ship[everspace.fandom.com] loadout to use is pretty simple. You basically prioritize getting a mobility device, then a weapon with high shield DPS is important for the wardens without the Ancient Weapon.

• Interceptor - Loadout B (for Energized Boost, Beam Laser M3 has good DPS)
  
• Scout - Loadout B (Teleporter. ♥♥♥♥ shield dps, so scrap and craft a pulse laser in normal weapon runs).
  
• Gunship - no best option here really without a mobility device. I like Loadout C for the Nano Injectors.
  
• Sentinel - All bad, use Loadout C for good shield DPS and damage boosters.

Now based on your ship and loadout, you need to do a few different things at the start of a run.

1. Start by scrapping everything except a shield (unless you’re using Daredevil) and useful consumables in order to craft:
   
2. A mobility device if you don’t have one, or a Pulse Laser on Scout with normal weapons
   
3. Then 2 Damage Boosters Mk2 for the wardens
   
   • Total of 8 scrap, 2 gel, 4 gas, 2 plasma
4. Then an Energy Core Extension to reach things more easily (usually you’ll have enough for one, but if you didn’t start with 3 processors then you’re out of luck)
   
   • 13 scrap, 3 processors, 8 plasma
5. Spend the leftovers on Energy Injectors for emergencies
   
   • 2 scrap, 1 power cell, 1 gas each

• If your loadout happened to start with a drone, I like to spawn one just to draw aggro for me.
  
• A tractor beam can be nice for collecting fuel from fuel tanks.

Enhancements[everspace.fandom.com]

1. Always Headstart, saves around 50-70 seconds or more.
   
2. Always Ancient Structures, easy consistency and you don’t need the slot anyway
   
3. Always Ancient Weapon (OP, speeds up warden kills significantly) or an option listed below in normal weapon runs.

In normal weapon runs aiming for perfect RNG, the third slot doesn’t really matter. There are some little things that could help like Daredevil, Sensory Overload, Artisan, or any of the 5% bonus subroutines. If you’re not going for perfect RNG, generally use Equalizer so you don’t need to worry about dying from unlucky 0 fuel jumps. Fuel conservation wastes a lot of time and you shouldn’t need the fuel. You can look at a different runner’s enhancement tierlist here[www.speedrun.com].

Starting loot

Most starter loot options are pretty worthless but you can occasionally get some gems. Usually it’s not worth the time restarting the game over and over for something from this unless you REALLY want a Jump Stabilizer.
Anyway, here’s a general priority list based on potential time saved:

1. Jump Stabilizer
   
2. Plasma Powered Jump
   
3. Mobility device (Energized Boost, Engine Booster, better teleporter)
   
4. Energy Core Extension
   
5. Mk2 or Mk3 damage boosters
   
6. Energy Injectors
   
7. Nanobots
   
8. High level devices to scrap

• Besides reading this guide, you can watch existing speedruns to get a better feel for things!
  
• STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MAURICE. If you get too close, he’ll suck you right in to ask for your help in enabling his gaming addiction, and all the while the run timer will be ticking up.
  
• G&B Freighters with a mission will not drop anything. Sometimes this can happen with fuel freighters. Listen for HIVE talking about it.
  
• The menu cannot be opened for three seconds after jumping into a zone (can open when the jump cooldown timer says 9s).
  
• Keep in mind Easy Difficulty has reduced collision damage, that’s the only time you can go around smashing into things without worry (especially when entering ancient depots).
  
• If playing Scout and Sentinel, Throng is your very best friend! He can cheaply attach three energy consumption mods to your teleporter, so prioritize getting to him if you can. This saves a lot of time at jump gate locations. If not playing Scout or Sentinel, he’s still a good lad and might be worth a visit for some shield damage mods and enhancements with normal weapons or energized boost mods.
  
• Taking a wormhole with the Fuel Conservation subroutine will actually give you some fuel.
  
• You can instantly use consumables via the equipment menu, as opposed to holding your use key for a moment.
  
• The Ancient Warp Gate only opens as soon as you collect the item drop from the monolith. You don’t need to wait for the ceiling to fully disappear.
  
• Wrecks from previous runs are allowed, might be worth getting a jump stabilizer from starting loot, scrapping all other consumables, and crashing to get it in future runs.
  
• Wrecks will only disappear when collected on a run that ends with a win or a loss. If collected on a run that is later reset, the wreck will still appear in future runs.
  
• The Time Extender does not slow down the run timer, jump cooldown, or jump animations, but it does slow down interactions such as using the jump gate and charging the jump so it is best to avoid this device.

Often, the RNG is so bad that it’s not worth continuing the run. In most of these cases you would instantly reset, again depending on what kind of time you are looking for.

• Ancient warps taking you past or missing an ancient depot in the next sector
  
• Fewer than 6 skips from an Ancient warp
  
• Depending on short path RNG it can be hard to tell which path the warp took, so it might be worth sticking it out if you got a decent skip (4 or 5) and a couple short paths.
  
• Not getting a short path in any sector
  
• Finding an Okkar Frigate or a Drone Carrier with a jump suppressor (not possible to take care of in 12 seconds without a Jump Stabilizer). Keep in mind Okkar Corvette suppressors can be hacked.
  
• Not getting to a hackable jump suppressor in 7 seconds or less (again 9.5s with Sentinel)
  
• Any NPC cutscenes happen

I ended up recording a macro that nearly instantly resets my run through the menu since I was doing it so much. It might help you as well if you have a keyboard/software for it. Let me know if you want to see how I did but, not complicated.

Well, I’m not 100% certain, but my current estimate is 3m20s (insane), based on my personal best[www.speedrun.com] with 4m37s. In that run, I could have gotten two more natural skips and two more ancient skips, which would save 76 seconds (19s x 4 normal zones skipped). Note that I also got a Jump Stabilizer which saved about 9 seconds in that run.

Hopefully all that helps! I would love it if more people were active in speedrunning this game, even if you weren’t setting new WRs. A fun place to start is beating a Developer’s record of 7m16s[www.speedrun.com]. The leaderboards are overall pretty sparse so you can make a mark in any category!

- Grendal


A Google Docs version of this guide can be found here.[docs.google.com]
Everspace 1 & 2 Speedrunning-specific Discord: https://discord.gg/RC48nss