Speedrun Basics: Start Running and Improve Fast

Learn speedrun basics: choose a category, build a route, time runs, practice smart, and submit leaderboard-ready attempts.

Speedrunning looks intimidating from the outside, but the core idea is simple: pick a game, define a goal, learn the route, and practice executing it cleanly under timer pressure. If you already enjoy game walkthroughs and breaking levels into repeatable chunks, you’re closer to a runner than you think. The difference is that speedrunning turns casual knowledge into measurable improvement, community standards, and leaderboard-ready documentation. For a broader foundation in learning systems and setting up repeatable habits, our guide on turning big goals into weekly actions is surprisingly useful for building a speedrun routine.

This guide is designed to take you from “I want to try this” to “I have a route, a timer, and a way to improve.” We’ll cover category selection, routing, timing methods, practice strategies, glitch hunting, community etiquette, and how to document runs for the leaderboards. If you’re also trying to get better at fundamentals like precision movement or how to improve aim in shooters, the same deliberate-practice mindset applies. And if you want a good example of making a competition-friendly setup from a small budget, check out our piece on building a budget game night bundle—the same “what matters first?” logic helps you avoid wasting time and money when getting speedrun-ready.

What Speedrunning Actually Is, and Why It’s More Than Just Going Fast

Speedrunning is structured mastery

At its best, speedrunning is a mix of skill, memory, route optimization, and composure. You’re not just rushing through a game; you’re learning which actions save time, which risks are worth taking, and how to recover when something goes wrong. That makes it a great fit for players who like measurable progress and replayable challenge. It also means every run becomes a performance record, not just a personal playthrough.

Different games reward different kinds of speed

Some games favor mechanical consistency, where each split-second movement matters. Others reward route knowledge, item planning, or glitch discovery. In live-service environments, the competitive landscape can even shift as updates land, which is why understanding how live-service games change their economy can help you decide whether a game is stable enough for long-term running. If you’re considering a game with long patch cycles, it’s also smart to watch for balance changes, skipped sections, or route-breaking fixes before you invest dozens of hours.

Think in categories, not just “the game”

The biggest beginner mistake is assuming a game has one speedrun. In reality, most have multiple categories with different goals and difficulty levels. A glitchless Any% route might be very approachable, while a 100% category can be much longer and more execution-heavy. You’ll get better faster if you choose a category that matches your current patience, mechanical skill, and available practice time.

Choosing the Right Category for Your First Run

Start with a category you can finish consistently

Your first category should not be the most prestigious one; it should be the one that teaches you the full loop of routing, timing, and recording. For many players, that means Any%, a short level category, or a No Major Glitches route. The ideal first category has a clear endpoint, a stable route, and enough documentation that you can learn without guessing. If the community has several major branches, choose the one with the most beginner-friendly guides and active discussion.

Match category length to your attention span

Long categories can be rewarding, but they also magnify mistakes and fatigue. If you get mentally drained after 20 minutes, a 90-minute category may be demoralizing rather than educational. Shorter categories let you iterate faster, especially when you’re learning menuing, movement, and boss patterns. This is the same principle behind choosing the right tools for the job, whether you’re comparing desk accessories or deciding which part of a run deserves your attention first.

Do a category feasibility check before committing

Before you lock in, ask three questions: Is the route well documented? Are the inputs reasonable for your platform and hardware? And does the category have active timing and leaderboard standards? If the answer to any of those is unclear, spend an hour researching before you commit a week of practice. Good community resources save you from learning obsolete tech or discovering late that a category has special verification rules.

Routing: The Blueprint That Turns a Game Into a Run

What routing means in practice

Routing is the process of deciding the fastest reliable sequence of actions to complete a run. It includes movement choices, item pickups, story flags, boss order, and whether a skip or trick is worth the risk. In beginner terms, routing is the difference between “I know how to beat the game” and “I know the fastest way to beat this category.” Good routing also gives you a recovery plan when a segment goes off-script.

Build a route from documentation, then simplify it

Start with a proven community route, not a homemade one. Beginners often waste time inventing “optimized” paths before they understand why a route works. Read the guide, watch a few runs, and write down the minimal sequence of actions for each section. Then simplify those notes into your own reference sheet, focusing on decisions, splits, and key movement cues rather than every tiny button press. For a useful mindset on documentation quality and clarity, see our guide on reading between the lines of a good service listing; the same idea applies when evaluating route notes: if the instructions are vague, refine them until they’re usable under pressure.

Expect routing to evolve

Speedrun routes are living documents. Patches, new glitches, and community breakthroughs can make yesterday’s “best” route obsolete overnight. This is especially true in games with active updates, where a patch can remove skips, alter enemy behavior, or move critical triggers. If you follow genre-wide changes, it helps to keep an eye on trend articles like how development changes can reshape a game’s future so you understand why communities sometimes split into pre-patch and post-patch categories.

Timing Methods, Splits, and How Leaderboards Judge Your Run

Real-time attack, in-game time, and timing standards

Most runners need to understand at least two timing systems. Real-time attack, or RTA, measures the entire run from start to finish using an external timer. In-game time, or IGT, uses the game’s internal clock, which may ignore menus, loads, or cutscenes depending on the title. Leaderboards will usually specify which timing method counts, and you should follow that standard exactly. If the rules say loadless time, do not submit RTA unless explicitly allowed.

Use splits to know where you’re winning or losing

Splits break a run into segments so you can compare each section against your personal best, gold split, or estimate. A beginner doesn’t need a complicated overlay setup, but you do need a clear way to identify where time is being gained or lost. Splits also help with emotional control: instead of panicking over one mistake, you can see whether the run is still salvageable. That feedback loop is one of the fastest ways to improve because it turns a vague feeling into a concrete diagnosis.

Timing software and setup discipline matter

Pick one timer, learn its shortcuts, and keep your setup consistent. Changing hotkeys, layouts, or split names every session can become a hidden source of errors. If you’re building a broader creator or streaming workflow around runs, our article on designing a creator operating system explains how to connect tools without chaos. The goal is simple: one button to start, one button to split, one clear archive of PBs, and one place to store notes.

Pro Tip: If your category uses loadless timing, practice with the exact timing method you’ll submit. A run can feel “faster” on stream but still be invalid on the leaderboard if you’re timing it wrong.

Practice Strategies That Actually Make You Faster

Segment practice beats endless full runs at first

New runners often think improvement comes from doing full runs repeatedly. Full runs matter, but early progress usually comes from isolated segment practice. Break the game into sections, then work on the parts that cost the most time or cause the most resets. This could be a tricky movement room, a boss fight, or a menu sequence that you fumble under pressure. A structured approach, like the one in weekly action planning, keeps practice specific instead of random.

Use error logs to spot patterns

Every missed jump, menu misinput, or bad fight should teach you something. Write down what happened, why it happened, and whether the fix is mechanical, mental, or routing-related. Over time, those notes become a personal training database. You’ll usually notice that many “different” mistakes come from the same root causes, such as rushing, poor camera control, or failing to reset focus after a checkpoint.

Train for consistency before chasing peak pace

Speedrunning isn’t just about a perfect one-off time. It’s about being able to hit near-PB pace often enough that real improvement sticks. That means learning safe strats before high-risk optimizations, then gradually swapping in faster options once they’re reliable. If your game relies on precision movement, add dedicated drills for camera angles, jump timing, or recoil control—especially in shooters, where aim training fundamentals can be the difference between a good time and a reset.

Glitch Hunting, Tech Discovery, and When to Learn the Fancy Stuff

Don’t hunt glitches before you can explain the route

Glitch hunting is exciting, but it’s easy to get lost in hype. Before you start searching for skips, make sure you can already finish the category cleanly using a standard route. Once you understand the logic of the game’s systems—loading, collision, triggers, state changes—you’ll be better positioned to identify weird interactions. Runners who know the baseline route often spot new tricks faster because they can tell when something is even slightly out of place.

Use community discovery responsibly

Most glitches emerge from collaborative testing, not solo genius. Watch community research threads, credit discoverers, and verify findings on your own before relying on them in runs. If a trick is new, expect routing to change multiple times as people test setups, backup methods, and failure cases. Communities appreciate curiosity, but they also expect care with claims, since premature “new tech” can spread misinformation fast.

Decide whether a glitch is worth your category

Just because a trick exists doesn’t mean it belongs in your personal route. A skip that saves 40 seconds but fails half the time may be worth it in a high-level leaderboard grind and a bad choice for your first PB attempts. Think in expected value: average time saved multiplied by success rate, minus the time lost to failed attempts. That same value-first thinking shows up in other parts of gaming culture too, like deciding whether a purchase or upgrade is justified, similar to the approach in what gaming collectibles are worth buying on sale.

Community Resources, Etiquette, and How to Ask Better Questions

Where to learn without annoying the community

Speedrun communities are often incredibly generous, but they reward players who do a little homework first. Before asking for help, read the route guide, check pinned resources, and watch a recent run if possible. Many communities have Discord servers, forums, and leaderboard pages that answer common beginner questions. If you’re used to navigating directories or marketplace profiles, the logic is similar to understanding a strong vendor profile: details, clarity, and trust signals matter.

Ask specific questions, not broad ones

Instead of asking “How do I get better?”, ask “Where do runners save the most time in this chapter?” or “Why do top players use this backup after the split?” Specific questions show that you’ve tried to solve the problem yourself, and they get you better answers. The same applies to submitting a route question: include version, category, platform, and what you’ve already tested. This makes it easier for experienced runners to help without repeating common advice.

Be careful with competition and credit

Do not claim someone else’s strat as your discovery, and do not post unverified shortcuts as facts. When a new route or trick is shared, credit the person or group that found it. On the leaderboard side, respect the rules exactly, even if they seem annoying, because standards exist to keep comparisons fair. For a broader example of how trust gets built in online systems, see auditing trust signals across online listings; speedrunning communities work the same way, just with timers instead of storefronts.

How to Document Runs for Leaderboards and Evidence Standards

Record clean footage from the start

If you want your run accepted, recording discipline matters from the beginning. Capture the whole run, including timer start, settings if required, and the final result screen. Make sure audio, video, and timer overlay are all readable. A great run can still be rejected if the evidence is incomplete, so set up your recording stack before you start serious attempts.

Keep a submission-ready log

Store the date, category, version, platform, timing method, and notable exceptions for every serious PB attempt. If a leaderboard asks for verification or a file upload, you’ll be ready. This also helps if your run is challenged later, since your notes can show what happened and how you measured it. In the same way that good archives protect cultural material, speedrun documentation protects competitive integrity, which is why careful recordkeeping is as important as movement skill.

Know the difference between personal bests and verified leaderboard runs

A PB is personal progress, but a leaderboard entry is a public claim. That means your video, timer, and category definition must all align with the board’s rules. If a run is close, but you’re missing a required screenshot or a split reference, treat it as a learning run rather than a submission. Good documentation saves time, reduces disputes, and makes it easier for moderators to review your attempt fairly.

Comparison Table: Beginner Speedrun Setup Options

Setup Choice	Best For	Pros	Cons	Recommendation
Short Any% category	First-time runners	Fast iteration, easy to learn, frequent attempts	May skip iconic content	Best starting point for most players
Glitchless route	Players who want stability	Reliable, easier to explain, fewer failed tricks	Slower and sometimes less exciting	Great for learning fundamentals
IGT-based category	Games with load-heavy menus	Fairer comparisons, less hardware variance	Timer rules can be confusing at first	Read leaderboard rules carefully
RTA category	Most action games and platformers	Simple external timing, common standard	Loads and pauses count unless excluded	Ideal when the board uses standard real-time
Long 100% route	Completionists and advanced learners	Deep game knowledge, strong routing skill	Long practice time, higher fatigue	Try after your first consistent PBs

How to Improve Aim, Movement, and Execution Without Burning Out

Use short drills before serious attempts

When a game depends on precision, warmups matter. A few minutes of controlled practice on a specific mechanic can dramatically reduce early mistakes. For shooters, that could mean target switching, recoil control, or strafe-tracking. For platformers, it may mean jump timing and camera alignment. The point is not to “grind harder” but to reduce mechanical friction before you ask your brain to perform under timer pressure.

Build confidence with repeatable checkpoints

Confidence comes from proving to yourself that you can hit the same section multiple times in a row. If you keep failing the same segment, isolate it and repeat until your success rate improves. Don’t measure success only by PBs; measure it by whether your average attempt is getting cleaner. This is the same logic behind finding tested devices during flash sales: reliability matters more than a flashy headline.

Know when to stop and reset your brain

Fatigue causes greedy movement, bad decisions, and sloppy timing. If you’ve been grinding for hours and your splits are getting worse, take a break. Some of the best improvement happens after a short reset, because your next session starts with better focus. Sustainable speedrunning is a marathon, not a sprint, even if the run itself is timed.

Building a Long-Term Speedrunning Habit

Set weekly goals, not vague ambitions

“Get faster” is not a plan. “Learn the first three splits, then improve consistency on the boss fight” is a plan. Weekly targets keep you honest and make progress visible even when you don’t set a PB. If you like staying organized, the framework from action planning translates perfectly into a speedrun practice schedule.

Track your improvement like a researcher

Keep a simple log of attempts, PBs, failed segments, and route changes. Over time, patterns emerge: maybe your opening movement is excellent but your late-game focus drops off, or maybe one tricky skip is responsible for most resets. The more systematically you document runs, the easier it becomes to know what to practice next. That’s where community resources and personal data work together instead of competing.

Stay flexible as your goals change

You may begin with a beginner-friendly Any% route and later move to 100%, low% challenge runs, or category extensions. That’s normal. Your first job is to learn the ecosystem: timing, routing, verification, and the culture around the leaderboard. Once those habits are locked in, it becomes much easier to branch into more technical categories or even contribute to glitch hunting.

Pro Tip: If you want faster progress, don’t practice everything equally. Spend most of your time on the segments that are both common and costly. Small gains in frequent sections usually outperform rare, flashy saves.

Common Mistakes Beginners Make

Starting with a category that is too hard

The fastest way to quit is to pick a route that punishes every tiny mistake. Many beginners jump straight into elite categories because they look impressive, then get discouraged when they can’t reproduce advanced tech. Start smaller, build confidence, and upgrade your target once your practice results stabilize.

Ignoring rules and leaderboard standards

Another common mistake is treating leaderboard rules like optional suggestions. They are not optional. The category definition, timing method, platform rules, and evidence requirements are part of the run. Skipping them can get a run rejected even if the time is excellent.

Practicing without recording or notes

If you’re not recording, you’re losing the chance to review what happened. If you’re not taking notes, you’re relying on memory for patterns your brain will forget. A simple log of mistakes and route changes accelerates learning far more than “just one more run” ever will. Serious improvement comes from feedback, not just repetition.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best first speedrun category for beginners?

Usually the best first category is a short, stable Any% or glitchless route with strong community documentation. You want something that teaches the full process—routing, timing, recording, and submission—without overwhelming you with advanced tech. If a game has multiple beginner routes, choose the one with the clearest guides and most active runners.

Do I need expensive equipment to start speedrunning?

No. Most beginners can start with the hardware they already own. A stable controller or keyboard, a reliable timer, and recording software are enough to learn the basics. Upgrade later if your category benefits from specialized equipment or if your current setup becomes a bottleneck.

Should I learn glitches right away?

Usually not. It’s better to understand the route and game systems first, then learn glitches once you know what they save and why they matter. That makes it easier to judge whether a trick is worth the risk and helps you troubleshoot failures more effectively.

How do I know if my run is leaderboard-legal?

Check the official category rules carefully. Confirm the timing method, version, platform, evidence requirements, and whether any external tools are allowed. If you’re unsure, compare your setup against accepted runs or ask a moderator or experienced runner with all the details included.

What’s the fastest way to improve after my first PB?

The quickest improvement usually comes from isolating your worst or most time-expensive segments, then practicing them until they feel automatic. Review your splits, identify repeat mistakes, and work on consistency before adding riskier optimizations. That approach gives you reliable progress instead of random spikes.

How should I handle community feedback?

Be specific, respectful, and open to correction. Experienced runners are usually happy to help if you show that you’ve done some homework and can explain your issue clearly. If someone gives you a better route or a correction, credit them and test the advice before making it part of your run.

How to Spot Which Live-Service Games Are Probably About to Shift Their Economy - Useful for runners choosing stable games with long-term route viability.
Design Your Creator Operating System: Connect Content, Data, Delivery and Experience - Helpful if you stream runs or track progress like a creator.
A Practical Guide to Auditing Trust Signals Across Your Online Listings - Great for understanding proof, credibility, and submission standards.
A Coaching Template for Turning Big Goals into Weekly Actions - A strong framework for speedrun practice planning.
Best Current Gaming Collectibles to Grab on Sale: Artbooks, Steelbooks, and Tabletop Tie-Ins - A fun reminder that value is about fit, not hype, when choosing what to invest in.

Marcus Vale

Senior Gaming Content Strategist

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.