Speedrunning can be described as the exciting aspect of gaming where individuals try to complete games in the shortest possible time frames, using various advanced techniques and precise ways to minimize the seconds or even the minutes on the clock of their game. On first glance, speedrunning sounds pretty simple. Playing as fast as you can might seem easy, but the art of mastering it requires much knowledge of the game and how techniques are used to break records. A healthy dose of skill does not hurt either. If you are new to the game or looking to cut down your times in your favorite games, here are some advanced techniques that will help you conquer speedrunning.

1. Master glitching and sequence breaking:one Among other things, speedrunning provides access to the game's many glitches and sequence breaks-game bugs that'd essentially enable you to skip along bits of the game, doing objectives out of turn or in the wrong way.

Glitching: Discovering unintended behaviors in the game's mechanics, such as clipping through walls, skipping cutscenes, or triggering events before they normally occur. Super Mario 64 is a classic example, using "backwards long jumping" to speed up Mario faster than what the game would normally let him do, skipping big parts of the map.

Sequence Breaking: This is the completion of objectives or stages in any order other than what was originally intended by the game. Sequence breaking can easily cut into your total playtime by skipping over puzzles, bosses, or even whole levels. In Metroid, players use sequence breaking in order to get powerful upgrades early on in the game, which then allows them to defeat tougher enemies with much less effort.

Learning glitches and sequence breaks specific to your game of choice requires experimentation and detailed study of the game's code and mechanics, but mastering these techniques can cut your time significantly.

2. Learn Optimal Routing

An optimized route is a necessary part of the game in terms of speedrunning; one has to get through with as much efficiency as possible while doing necessary objectives. This will be about when to take risks, when to avoid obstacles, and how to use shortcuts correctly.

Route Planning: Identify the levels or worlds of the game and determine which areas and tasks can be skipped and which ones must be done to maximize time efficiency. For instance, in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, experienced speedrunners know how to skip certain side quests or manipulate in-game mechanics to save precious seconds.

Resource Management: Health, ammo, or items must be managed. In the game of Resident Evil, for example, speedrunners would not heal or even take damage in some areas to not waste time collecting healing items they do not need.

Optimal routing also encompasses when to perform certain in-game actions, such as fast travel, skipping dialogues, and loading or unloading areas in ways that reduce wait times.

3. Control Your Movement and Skill

Many games, especially platformers or action-adventure games, depend on the player's ability to control movement accurately. Speedrunning is not about racing through the game but about doing it as efficiently as possible with perfect execution.

Advanced Movement Techniques: A high level of skills like ledge grab, wall jump, and fast strafing will significantly enhance time. Celeste's speedrunners heavily depend upon the advanced movement techniques where they use "corner boosting" and make utilization for "strawberry jump" for momentum and skipping over obstacles.

Perfect Frames of Inputs: Some speedruns require frame-perfect inputs to achieve advanced tricks. Frame-perfect inputs are those inputs which have to be done at a specific frame of the animation of the game in order to get the desired effect. For example, in Super Mario Bros., the frame-perfect jumps might help maintain speed or even make difficult skips possible.

Input Buffering: It lets a player input his actions in such a way that it will be executed when the game allows. It thus avoids delay and smooth play, which is really very essential in games like Dark Souls or The Legend of Zelda, where every single second matters.

Movement techniques take practice hours in order to get perfect. At some points, though, it's not merely a matter of strategy anymore but also muscle memory and reflexes.

4. RNG Manipulation Practice

RNG plays a tremendous role in speedrun times, especially for games that have randomized enemy behavior, item drops, or world events. Most games have aspects which can be manipulated or seeded to make them more predictable and consistent.

RNG Manipulation: There are a few games which have the capability of manipulating RNG so that some results aren't a mystery anymore. For example, The Binding of Isaac allows manipulation by players over RNG such that they can drop better items and then become more efficient during runs.

Timing and Resetting: Sometimes, speedrunners will reset the game or manipulate certain events (such as enemy spawns or the layout of levels) to reduce randomness and optimize their route. This requires detailed knowledge of how RNG works in the game and when to exploit it for the best outcomes.

Understanding how RNG affects your run and how to counter it is the key to getting consistent results, especially in games with a lot of variability.

5. Utilize Time Saves with Advanced Techniques

Speedrunning is more than just playing through a game as fast as possible; it's using every trick in the book to shave off seconds. Here are some specific techniques that help save precious seconds:

Save and Load Manipulation: In certain games, saving and loading at particular times can influence the state of the game, bypass specific animations, or even reset the positions of enemies. Some speedrunners use it in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to quickly reset situations or skip cutscenes.

Skip Cutscene- Most RPG and adventure games usually have very lengthy cutscenes. Learning skips to cuts in-game or bugs is a great time saver in most cases. Final Fantasy VII sometimes use the quick menu navigation method of skips to some of its cuts and goes on straight into another part.

Action Canceling: In the game sometimes, at the appropriate time, the actions which include fighting or using some item with an action to be specified get canceled. Sometimes it is used for Mega Man and Dark Souls games in order to not lose speed and not go through any unnecessary animation.

6. Learn from other speedrunners

The speed-running community is massive, and so the best way to find new tricks, techniques, and routing ideas is actually by watching others. Here, you can find content on Twitch and YouTube and watch high-tier runs so you can discover methods which you would never have thought on your own.

Join Communities: Become a member of the Speedrun.com forums wherein techniques are shared, and new strategies are learned even participate in a speed running event.

Watch Record Breaking Runs: See what the record holders do. Most good speedrunners commentate their runs which expound in detail why they made certain selections.

Conclusion:

To perfect the speedrun much dedication, practice and full understanding is required of the game. When you master glitching, optimize routes, master your movement, control RNGs, and you use any time-saving trick you can find, times should go up considerably. Most importantly, though, don't forget to enjoy yourself; speedrunning is every bit about fun and how far you push the limit as it is about those fast times. Now take the controller, grab a game of your choice, and let's run!