Sublevel Zero is certainly one of the better Six Degree of Freedom shooters to arrive on the scene in the past decade or so, but it's really easy to unlock a whole bunch of things, and then just be done with the game. I also did this when I first started out playing, but eventually I decided to give speedrunning a shot, and found that the challenge of trying to speedrun a game as challenging as this one really extended the life of it for me.

I'm hoping to share this experience with some tips on how to quickly traverse the sublevels and get your warp drive in no time flat!

Learning the layouts is key to going fast, because it helps you avoid unnecessary rooms. Always be on the lookout for colored doors, because you can infer much about the layout of the sublevel when you know where these doors are.

• Sublevel 0 is keyless.
  
• Sublevel 1 has a blue key only. The reactor is always behind the blue door.
  
• Sublevels 2 and 3 have blue and yellow keys. The yellow key is always within 2 rooms behind the blue door, and the reactor is always behind the yellow door. It is also very common that the yellow door is behind the blue door, you will be unlikely to see a yellow door before you come across the blue door.
  
• Sublevels 4 and 5 have blue, yellow, and red keys. The yellow key is always within 2 rooms behind the blue door, the red key is always within 2 rooms behind the yellow door, and the reactor is always behind the red door. These sublevels have the most varied configurations, but the most common have the red door behind the blue door and the yellow door off somewhere else, or the yellow and red doors connecting from the same room, both behind the blue door. While a "straight shot" that has the yellow door behind the blue door and the red door behind the yellow door is possible, it's very unlikely.

On sublevels 4 and 5, occasionally you will NOT need a yellow key.

Don't clear entire sublevels just to kill enemies for nanites, only kill the ones you come across. Try to only kill enemies while you still need the nanites or an important item drop.

While there are a bunch of enemies in the game, there are only a handful enemies that require special attention when speedrunning.

First off are the missile defenders. These guys take out 25 armor in a single hit, so flying carelessly around them is not an option, as they can end your run quickly. Remember that the darker colored ones are HOMING missile defenders!

Next up are the snipers. These guys are annoying because they can get out of your field of vision and pick you off for moderate damage (10 per shot).

Then there's Mr. Serious. At least that's what I call the lava miners, because they're serious about getting up in your face! They hit for moderate damage and have considerable shields, and are one of the few enemies I recommend taking out with a well-placed secondary.

The bombs are important because you don't really want to waste ammo on them. Killing them is as simple as flying by them. They take time to explode, and if you use your boost you will easily get past their explosion radius.

Be mindful of the burners, which are the tanks that shoot lasers. These can ruin a run pretty quickly if you unwittingly fly into their beams.

Most other enemies can be flown around once you don't need the nanites. You can take out spawners or mine layers, but you really don't have to, especially if you know where you're going in the sublevel.

Weapon choice is EXTREMELY important, as it determines how fast you can go. I will go over all 21 primaries and divide them into three levels for each tier: S-Level, A-Level, and Get-Something-Else-Level

Tier 1:
Generally tier 1 weapons are nice early game but extremely weak late game. If you're taking a tier 1 weapon into sublevel 4, you're probably having a bad run.

S-Level:

• Autocannon - You can't say enough about autoaiming in a game like this, and having a tier 1 weapon do this is a godsend. This weapon is phenominal early on against the smaller, faster enemies.
  
• Flamethrower - Nothing says "love" better than getting up into someone's face and burning them with fire. This weapon takes some getting used to, but with proper circle strafing you can take out grouped up enemies in early sublevels fairly quickly.

A-Level:

• Pulsar - Pew pew. It's fire rate is decent, but its damage is not the best.
  
• Shredder - While not specifically a melee weapon, it's better up close. The down time between shots makes this inferior to the flamethrower, because you have to time your positioning for maximum damage, and that's not easy to do.

Get-Something-Else-Level:

• Impact Rifle - The only thing this is good for is reactor damage and Low% runs. The stun is nice, but not enough to recommend using.
  
• Firebolt - Not worth the trouble for the damage.
  
• Laser - Weapons that overheat and thus have a cooldown can leave you vulnerable.

Tier 2:
Tier 2 weapons are something you COULD finish the game on, but you won't get a fast time because you're not going to be able to take out a large number of enemies quickly with them. Tier 2 weapons will occasionally drop from enemies, but not often.

S-Level:

• Plasmacaster - This is as close to a Tier 3 weapon as you can get. High damage, fast fire rate, and usually good accuracy. Great for reactors. The only thing this won't do is clear a crowded room quickly. Watch out for overheating, but its high damage compensates for it though.
  
• Spreadpulse - Also a good high level weapon, this thing can take out most low damage enemies. Also does a moderately good job of clearing rooms.
  
• Smart Gun - The upgrade from the Autocannon, this thing has bullets that actually home in on enemies. This weapon also got a balance pass in a recent update, and now is a very suitable Tier 2 weapon.

A-Level:

• Minigun - Who doesn't like a rapid fire gun? Only downside is the low damage, but is great at taking out the smaller enemies.

Get-Something-Else-Level:

• Flak Cannon - Be careful, this weapon bounces off walls and into you. Like the Shredder, only really useful close up.
  
• Railgun - Like the impact rifle, but this one penetrates enemies. Really slow.
  
• Welder - Another weapon that overheats, and is also short range.

Tier 3:
Tier 3 weapons are the best of the best, but there are definitely preferred weapons.

S-Level:

• Arcpulse - Hands down, the number one primary weapon in the game, without question. Goes through enemies, hits enemies around the projectiles fired, and clears rooms like a champ. Also is the only thing that can kill a shielder bot while its shield is up, but you have to be close to it in order to do so.
  
• Gauss Cannon - A very powerful minigun with an AoE explosion. Don't be in said explosion, however, unless you have an appropriate nanocart to negate the damage. Clears tight clusters of mobs quickly.

A-Level:

• Transpulse - Aim at the wall with this one and watch magic happen. Slow at clearing rooms, but otherwise a solid weapon, and not a bad choice for reactor rooms.
  
• Saturation Cannon - I hesitate to rate this higher because of the ramp up time for the weapon to begin firing. Basically a fast-firing flak cannon, and has huge damage.

Get-Something-Else-Level:

• Shockpulse - Garbage for damage, eats ammo like crazy, and the charge stun is just not worth it.
  
• Ion Beam - High damage doesn't offset the ramp up time for the weapon to begin firing.
  
• Arcthrower - Nice idea, but melee weapons aren't going to help you against a room full of missile defenders.

First and foremost, the main reason to use secondaries in a speedrun is to save time. I use secondaries for three very specific purposes:

• Kill Lava Miners before they can zip past you
  
• Kill missile defenders blocking a tunnel
  
• Kill the reactor

Secondaries provide great DPS, but it's important to understand which ones to use.

• Dumbfire - A tier 1 missile, this should be your go-to secondary for most, if not all, of the game. Get three of these, so that you can craft the Magcluster later and still have a dumbfire leftover.
  
• HVRL - A tier 1 dart that should only be used when you don't have another secondary. Again, get two of these, so that you can craft the Magcluster later and still have an HVRL.
  
• Magcluster - A tier 3 advanced missile. You should only craft this if you have crafted your primaries, and you can go straight to it from the tier 1 components, as the Homing Swarm is pretty bad for what you want to use secondaries for. It's not critical you craft this, and some runs you'll collect the parts only to leave them unused.

Hulls are surprisingly effective for speedrunning. The basics are that the level your ammo regeneration will regenerate to is based on your max ammo capacity. Increasing that capacity is like getting free ammo.

You will want to start with a Standard Hull, and then combine it with a Bomber Hull to create the Stafer Hull. Finally, combine that with another Standard Hull to produce the Comanche Hull, which has the highest ammo storage possible for primaries, and good storage for secondaries.

Only do this when you are not working on upgrading your primary weapons, however. Whether you upgrade your hull or secondaries next is up to preference.

Engines are pretty useless for speedrunning unless you have multiple gambler and interest nanocarts, and have nanites coming out of your ears. It's more important to be able to effectively battle through rooms and take out reactors without waiting for ammo regeneration than to actually be going fast.

If you do upgrade this, you'll want to combine the Standard Engine with the Scout Engine to create the Jumpjet Engine, and then combine that with another Standard Engine to create the Sprinter Engine.

By far the best nanocart you can pick up is Gunner. This will vastly increase your primary ammo storage, thus increasing what your ammo regenerates to.

Gambler is the best of the rest, since it rapidly increases your nanite intake. Interest is good too, but not as good as long as you can scoop up the nanites quickly.

Increasing the storage of your favorite primary's ammo at the cost of other primary's ammo is the next best thing you can get.

After that, you'll want to look at slight regeneration for the ammo types you use. Increasing the regeneration of one ammo type at the cost of ammo storage is only recommended for your alternate primary weapon.

All other nanocarts are at your discression in a run. Don't ever take anything that reduces your speed or primary ammo capacity and regeneration if you can avoid it. If you use the gauss, consider taking Gung Ho, which eliminates damage done to yourself or from explosions, including the gauss AoE effect, but be warned it halves your health. Regeneration is really good considering that you can't be killed unless you hit 1 health.

Theoretically you can use any ship, but if you want to get to the S-Level Tier 3 weapons as fast as possible, choose the Pyro. This ship gives you plasma regeneration for the Arcpulse, and comes with two of the tier 1 weapons you'll need for your Arcpulse and Gauss. Any other ship, and you're basically hoping for really good RNG on nanocarts and drops. With the Pyro, if you get a Firebolt for the Plasmacaster early you're off and running for the rest of the game.

Another excellent choice that gives you a variety of potential Tier 3 weapons to choose from is the Seeker, added in the Redux DLC. This weapon starts with the smart gun which is quite overpowering in the early levels, and leaves you a spreadpulse away from the transpulse.

There are two known exploits that significantly break the game.


Found by misterwaxx, this exploit allows you to shoot two primaries at once. To trigger it, take a weapon that does not charge but does overheat, such as the Laser or the Welder. Fire the weapon until it overheats, and while it overheats switch your primary weapon. The weapon will continue to fire as if you're holding the trigger down, allowing you to use your other primary weapon. This is awesome to get some extra DPS on things like reactors or rooms with a lot of high health enemies.

Note that you can run out of energy, and there are a load of bugs associated with this method that could potentially stop you from using the weapon at all. To avoid these bugs, always switch back to the weapon and fire it once to stop the weapon from firing continuously before doing any crafting or replacing any of your gear.


On Sublevel 5, if you hit the reactor's armor with a super cluster, sometimes the super cluster will start to explode continuously on the armor, instantly destroying the reactor without triggering any of its phases. Note that the explosions are live, and unless you have Gung Ho will kill you just as fast as it killed the reactor if you get close enough. Just kill off the armor around the explosion to get access to finish the game.

• All homing projectiles in the game can be shot down. Don't try it with a slow-firing weapon, though... minigun and gauss are your best bets here.
  
• Remember your repair kits. Whenever you are missing 25 armor, ALWAYS hit your repair button! Repair kits also stack their healing over time, and spamming them all on the last moments of the last sublevel is a great way to keep yourself alive since you can only be killed when your armor is equal to 1.
  
• Miniboss rooms with chests are an absolute waste of time. Keep in mind that you will rarely find a miniboss room with a key instead of a chest, but typically that only happens if you find the door BEFORE the key.
  
• Don't fly blindly into rooms with crystals in them. Enemies can and will shoot the crystals and end your run.
  
• Sublevel 3 has the most dangerous reactor room. As long as you take out any turrets that might shoot at you when it activates and you stay away from lava pillars, you should be fine.
  
• You can cheese sublevel 4 and 5 reactors and still get a good time, but you really need to have your S-Tier weapons with high regeneration to take them out quickly, otherwise you're in for a long fight.
  
• Use OBS Studio to record your runs or stream them to a streaming service, and then submit your speedrun videos to http://www.speedrun.com/sl0. Don't forget to tweet me @roncli so I remember to get them approved!