This is, by far, the hardest achievement in the game. It will really test your skill and patience. There is, however, a very important exploit to be aware of when attempting the speedrun achievements.
Backup Save Exploit
In order to use this exploit, the following two conditions much be met:
- You must not have used your revive yet, with Soul Essence
- You must have enough Soul Essence to afford the revive if you get downed
Here is how this exploit works. After completeing the first and then second areas, you’ll get to a campfire that you can interact with to save your game. You’ll be using this exploit to essentially make those save points permanent/reloadable. What you’re going to do is play through the first area as best and as fast as you can, and then save at the campfire before the second area. Now you have a save made with your progress complete in the first area. If, during the second area, you die or just take way too long for whatever reason, or get really bad Ascensions that aren’t for the build you want, etc., force close the game app. Regarding dying, this is why you need to have not used your revive but be able to afford it, because while downed and given the option to either revive or give up, the game doesn’t know if you’re dead yet. If you already used your revive, as soon as you take lethal damage, you’re dead, even though you’re one the ground with the option to give up. Likewise, if you don’t have enough Soul Essence to afford a revive, you’re dead as soon as you take lethal damage. So, if you get downed or just need to redo the area, press the guide button and force close the game app. When you relaunch the game, you’ll be back at the main menu with a Continue option. This will start you back at the campfire where you saved. Save again and try again. This gives you unlimited attempts at the second and third areas.
Time Benchmarks and Management
While every run is different, in the sense that you may make it through the first areas quickly and take longer in the later ones, or you might take longer in the first area to get more scrolls but go faster in the later areas because you have a stronger build, these are some general benchmarks and how I recommend managing your time.
- Act 1 – do the Vaults in at least the first two stages, since they’ll be just killing enemies (no elites), meaning they’ll be quick and easy scrolls. For the remaining stages, at least shoot the Vault cracks but only go in if it’s a trap vault, because it’s so fast and easy to avoid the boulders and get two extra scrolls. The first act should take you in the range of 8-10 minutes, maximum. You won’t be very strong here, and you’ll be doing at least two Vaults, plus the boss fight might take a bit longer since your build won’t be in full effect yet.
- Act 2 – no Vaults in this area at all unless you find a trap vault where you can quickly run past the boulders. Otherwise, don’t bother with any. You should be targeting 8-9 minutes, maximum, for the Desert area. You’ll need to be quite aggressive to do this, but it’s the best way to get a less stressful third act.
- Act 3 – approach here will depend on how much time you saved in the first two acts. For example, I was at 18 minutes at the start of Act 3 and had a pretty reliable build, so I decided to do a Vault to get an extra scroll to help with the final boss. I recommend trying without any Vaults though, and worst case, if you fail a bunch, when you reload your save with the exploit above you can then try adding a Vault into the run to see if it helps. You definitely want 10-12 minutes for the third act though since the stages can be pretty long with tons of enemies, plus the boss fights can go on longer
Prerequisites Before Even Attempting This
Before attempting a speedrun on Nightmare, there are some things skills that are absolutely critical to have. I can’t say “be at least level xyz” since you could level up faster with less important skills. Instead, here are some skills from the Talent tree that are absolutely critical to success:
- Everything in the Expedition tree on the left. You’ll want lots of copper, and the ability to buy lots of scrolls from Peddlers, with a refresh to look for more scrolls
- Everything in the Combat tree, aside from the center ones for launchers and snipers unless that’s what you prefer to use. You absolutely want the first ones, to increase damage, and the last two maxed out to increase critical damage and lucky shot chance
- You don’t need much in the Skill tree, depending on your build. The skill to reduce Primary Skill cooldown is the most important, as well as Secondary Skill capacity. Don’t waste your time with Occult Maestro, as it sounds good but it actually only allies to a couple scrolls and won’t really come in handy at all
- In the Survival tree, DMG Resistance is the most important to max out, by far. Also max out shield and health upgrades. The final three, for elemental reduction, health threshold, and excess damage, are all nice to have, but no need to wait until they’re maxed out
- In the Weapon tree, you absolutely need Exclusive inscriptions and Gemini Inscriptions, and then Skilled Craftsman and Legendary Craftsman
- As for Hero skills, ideally you should be maxing out whichever character you’re going to use. It’s not required though, so at least get the first two or three, as they’re usually really good
Build Options
First off, let me say that every character has a viable build for this speedrun, but most either rely on a huge amount of luck with getting the perfect Ascensions, scrolls, and weapons, or are definitely more suited for serious players; casual players may even struggle with some of the builds below, but if you want this speedrun you won’t get it as a casual player.
Qian Sui Aspis/Punch Build
This is the build I succeeded with. It’s definitely not a casual build though, because it’s tough to get perfect and it’s tough to execute, since it plays much different from any other character.
Necessary Ascensions
- Rogue Wave – each stack of Fist Sensation (movement speed) increases damage for the next punch
- Stormy Riptide – each punch increases Aspis duration
- Wave-breaking blow – every 8 stacks of Fist Sensation add extra punches when you punch
- Dark Tide – increase punch capacity, and chance to recover punches when you punch while holding the Aspis
- Impressionable Surge – every time an enemy dies during Aspis use, no cooldown on Hurtle
- Unbearable Hurtle – enemies hit by Hurtle take increased damage and deal less damage
Preferential Scrolls
- Anything that increases skill damage
- Anything that increases secondary skill capacity or uses
- Anything that increases movement speed, dash charges, or reduces dash cooldown
- The scroll that negates slowdown effects is extremely helpful
- Avoid anything that increases weapon damage, since you won’t be relying on weapons to do damage
Here’s how the gameplay for this build works. Especially once you get the Ascension that Hurtle increases damage dealt to enemies hit, you’re going to pop Aspis and then press 
to hurtle at an enemy. As soon as you collide with the enemy, immediately press 
to punch them. It’s absolutely critical that you punch as soon as possible, especially as you level up the Ascension where Fist Sensation stacks increase punch damage, because as soon as you collide with them and stop moving quickly, you immediately start losing stacks very quickly. Most regular enemies will die in a single punch. The only exceptions are Robust and Defensive enhanced enemies, some bigger enemies like Octopus and White Shark in the third area and Arsonists in the second area, and Elite enemies. If the enemy dies in a single punch, immediately Hurtle towards the next enemy and punch them (much easier once you get Impressionable Surge), repeating for every enemy. If an enemy doesn’t die in one punch, immediately start strafing around them, ensuring you never stop moving. This is so you maintain some stacks of Fist Sensation. If you just stand still punching them, your punches will end up being much weaker. So, keep moving in a circle around them, spamming punches til they’re dead, then Hurtle off to the next enemy.
Youll find this build can be challenging to master, because things move very quickly, and you need to prioritize enemies so you don’t get hit from behind. Always prioritize bigger enemies and snipers, since they can take you down the fastest. The other issue is that it’s really easy to make a mistake with this build, and on Nightmare a mistake often means death. However, what’s nice about this build is that it’s really conducive to the save reload exploit above, since you don’t have to worry about losing stacks when you reload your save. It’s also really nice because you’re inherently moving really fast with this build, forcing you to clear areas quickly, which is great for a speedrun. The video below, which I take no credit for, shows this type of build in action. It can be tough to build it up and master it, but it can be very effective against pretty much any enemy. The hardest enemy to fight with this build is the Wind God. Your best bet is to wait for it to swoop and land and then charge it, while just dodging everything else.
Here’s a video of this build in action. Full credit to the creator of the video.
Tao Flying Sword Build
The goal of this build is to never use your Primary Skill at all. Your secondary skill is instead going to be summon tons of Flying Swords that do tons of damage.
Necessary Ascensions
- Blade of Bloom – marking an enemy with Fatal Bloom summons flying swords relative to stacks of primary skill
- No Escape – enemies marked by Fatal Bloom take increased damage and other enemies get hit by the swords
- Epic Swordcraft – increase flying sword base damage
- Amplified Sword – after hitting an enemy with a flying sword, increase flying sword damage against that same enemy
- Furious Wave – flying swords have a chance to do significantly more damage
- Luminous Heart – increase stacks of primary skill
- Empathy with Sword – chance to summon a flying sword when hitting an enemy
Preferential Scrolls
- Anything that increases skill damage
- Anything that increases secondary skill capacity or uses
The gameplay here consists of continually using your secondary skill on mobs. You’re never going to use 
at all, because you want to keep your Primary Skill at max stacks. The flying swords summoned on marked enemies will absolutely destroy them. On top of that, if your weapon hits are also summoning flying swords, and you increase their base damage, you can deal out a lot of damage without having to use your gun much. What really helps is, in addition to obviously having your secondary skill capacity maxed from the Skill tree in the Talents, is also having the skill fully leveled up from the Survivability tree called Battlefield Support, where you’ll get a secondary skill each time you consume some ammo. Couple that with an automatic gun and you shouldn’t have a problem running out of secondary skills except if you’re spamming them against bosses.
This build works wonders on mobs. It’s especially handy for getting rid of shields on big enemies like Arsonists, allowing you to finish them off with guns if need be. You will also want to have a good gun on you too. You won’t be using Swords Out at all, so your stacks can also be used to improve your gun damage. Tao in general can get very strong with gun damage, so keep your copper focused on a strong automatic gun while your secondary skill takes care of mobs and shields and whatnot, all the while you’re firing into the fray and at bosses.
The hardest part about this build, and Tao in general, is she’s a bit of a glass cannon. It’s really easy to get caught off guard and die really fast. Thankfully, the save exploit above works great here, and you’ll almost assuredly need to use it multiple times as you perfect this build.
Here’s a video of this build in action. Full credit to the creator of the video.
General Demonlore Build
This build is really simple at heart and can work with any character technically, it just relies on some really good luck. All this build requires is the Demonlore SMG and the Advanced Depot legendary scroll. The basis for this build is that the Demonlore gets a 10% increase to base damage for every critical hit, up to 99 stacks, but they reset on reload. To combat the reload issue, that’s where Advanced Depot comes in. It makes it so you shoot from your reserve ammo and never have to reload. These two items paired together will allow you to rack up +990% damage to the Demonlore base damage, and that’s not including any scrolls or Ascensions you get that also boost weapon damage.
There is one important thing to be aware of that really limits the practicality of this build though: reloading your save with the exploit above resets your Demonlore stacks. This almost forces you to do the entire playthrough in one run without dying. That alone makes this build likely out of reach for most casual players. However, if you get lucky and get Advanced Depot on a run, it could still be worth pairing with a Demonlore you find, as you can still build up stacks in each Act.
Alternative Demonlore Builds
While these obviously also rely on your stacks staying by not dying throughout the run, you can actually cut out the RNG of hoping for Advanced Depot to drop, and instead utilize Tao and her Ascensions to keep your magazine full. Tao in particular has a really easy time with this, because her one Ascension refills part of the magazine every time you kill an enemy marked by Fatal Bloom. If you’re using even a portion of the Tao build detailed above, you’ll be getting most kills with Fatal Bloom, allowing you to pretty easily keep your magazine full. The only place you’d have to be careful is with bosses.
As another alternative, the rare scroll Deft Hands makes it so you don’t consume ammo for 2s after every kill. This combined with a strong secondary skill is another good way to keep your magazine full.
Thirdly, there is a regular scroll that adds ammo pickups directly to the magazine. This is yet another good way to keep your magazine full, especially if you also have the common scroll that converts all ammo pickups to the ammo type of the equipped gun.
