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I've made several attempts at it, mostly to get a feel for things. I've never gone past the 10 hour mark because I tend to stall in one way or another, so I'm looking for advice and wondering what I can do to improve. Naturally, I'm playing with cranked-up resource settings so I begin with large ore patches, and I restart until a decent patch of oil is near my starting position (I also prefer to play in a grassy area with lots of trees for pollution barriers). I also tend to start production of Stone Blocks asap so I can lay them down and save time running about, and I know I'll have to go into Concrete eventually anyway.

Generally I have Automation researched and a few machines production yellow belts by the half-hour mark; by the one hour mark I have a full belt array going; and by the two hour mark I have my bus base up and running with steady production of Red and Green Science. From there I rush to Engine Units and Fluid Handling as soon as possible to unlock Blue Science, and once steady production of Blue Science is open I focus on research to improve infrastructure (modules, construction bots, etc) while expanding and upgrading my factory, adding more smelting lines and circuit production in preparation for blue circuits. I also add in Military Science when I have time. I do my best to keep my labs researching, if they're struggling to stay active because of slow output of Blue Science then I switch to military upgrades since I'll need those eventually anyway.

When I go for the rocket silo and begin construction of space platforms is usually when I start to stall. Variably I lack the power grid to support my factory, I lack the resource output to keep up with demand, and/or I'm too slow to build the infrastructure needed to get my silo up and production. Then of course there's mass production of space platform "ground" which really eats up my copper and steel supply. While I can usually have the Rocket Silo research done by Hour 5 or so, it takes me another hour or two to get my first platform up to produce Space Science, and then another hour or two for my second, mobile platform to head to another planet. All in all with 30 hours left on the block before I leave Nauvis, I'm not sure if I'm going fast enough.

So, to some specific questions:

* Are my timestamps for when I hit major research milestones good? Specifically, what times should I shoot for for having the Rocket Silo researched, launching my first rocket to begin construction of a Space Platform, and completing my first interplanetary platform to leave Nauvis?
* Is Nuclear Power worth it to help with power needs? It's a huge investment of science, time, and resources, but it would give me a lot more freedom to use modules later, so I'm not sure. If yes, should I go for it before or after rushing to the Rocket Silo?
* What researches not part of the chain to the Rocket Silo should I look at, and when? I of course research stuff I know I'll need eventually, like explosives, damage upgrades, etc. But what about higher-tiers of armor, equipment like exoskeletons and shield modules, flamethrowers, etc.
* When I finally leave Nauvis, which planet do I want to head for first? I've seen Gleba advised for the Biolab, but I'm also drawn to Vulcanis for its easier production cycle, its oil product researches that could help with power and oil on Nauvis, and Tier 3 Speed Modules.
* Is there any room for Quality in this build, given the time and resources needed to get Quality Modules? I know ofc Quality items can be handy all-around but should I just skip them if I'm speedrunning?
* When I head to each planet, what do I want to bring with me for expediency? I know ofc from normal playthroughs to bring some means of power generation, assembly machines, etc, but I know this is a speedrun so I'm gonna want to "complete" the planet and get science pack deliveries up ASAP.
* And, since I've not yet gotten to the point of traveling to other planets, what should my build order and plans be from that point onward? I especially dread Aquilo's mechanics, and the massive amounts of resources needed to get a platform capable of escaping the solar system is daunting to think about. Even if I don't go for Fusion Power, it's gonna be a lot.

About the 12 hour mark was when I had my first mobile space platform in my 40 hr run, so I think you're doing alright. Getting Nauvis done was the slowest planet by far. The next three planets took about 4-5 hrs each, and Aquilo almost 8 hrs because of all the supply runs needed, and researching and making expensive railguns for the final trip. So it was close but not too close.

You should have blue science production about equal to red and green since you need 4x as much blue as any science pack that follows. Almost all but the first few techs need blue science. Basically, follow standard speedrun procedures and calculate how much of each science you need for your major milestones, and total to win the game, and scale your production (including power) accordingly. For power, remember that this gets vastly easier with even just tier 1 efficiency modules. My factory was full of cheap tier 1 efficiency modules and nothing else, and mostly just blue assemblers. No beacons. I think nuclear is worth the time investment just for the reduction in pollution as well, and along with the efficiency modules my pollution cloud was tiny! Didn't have any trouble with biters.

Try to only research "optional" tech, like higher tier damage upgrades, when you're waiting on the next planet science to come online, when science is otherwise stalled.

For space platforms, I built only the first two on Nauvis, a minimal white science platform and a "barely makes it to Vulcanus" platform which I dismantled there. All other platforms get built on Vulcanus, where the foundation is practically free after you get foundries up. From there I only needed one "large" platform anyway to get to Aquilo and beyond, initially solar powered and later remotely upgraded to nuclear for Aquilo. I didn't bother with fusion at all, it's expensive research that doesn't help all that much in a speedrun. Also remember that platforms can make most of their own infrastructure using asteroids, if you're low on supplies for launching rockets. I manually loaded the initial supply rockets (outside of foundation) however since platform defences need to be up asap on Vulcanus. And platforms can of course send down a lot of iron and steel from asteroids to help starting things on the planet, and carbon for power if needed.

I think the first planet must be Vulcanus because of the free resources for space platforms there, and also the foundry is OP. For the second planet I think I made a mistake by going to Fulgora first instead of Gleba. There's a lot more Gleba science required for Aquilo, but from Fulgora only the 3000 for Aquilo discovery. So having Gleba online last meant I was twiddling thumbs waiting for the research to finish for an hour or two whereas Fulgora was mostly idle while building out Gleba.

I didn't even research any higher tiers of speed modules, no higher tier production modules, and no quality at all. Getting quality going is a huge time sink with no short-term profits, and instead of speed modules you can just build more assemblers, which then barely need any power with efficiency modules instead. Biolabs are a waste of time in a speedrun imho, you get them so late that the science they save is barely enough to offset the cost of getting them, plus the hassle of setting them up. Of course after you've won you'll reconfigure your entire factory anyway...

I think before you go to any planet in a speedrun, you should've completed it at least once or twice before. Otherwise as you say figuring out the mechanics under pressure is going to be annoying, and the first factory is always janky. That will also tell you what you need to bring, although you can technically beat each of the inner planets arriving with nothing at all, having some production capacity at the start does help. I usually bring a few assemblers and furnaces, and solar+batteries to get initial production going with a lot of manual switching recipes at first, but most of the factory will be made on site. Plan the rocket silo and bring whatever won't be in mass production for your regular factory, i.e. electric motors. I'm not sure if it's worth bringing more for a quicker start versus waiting for the extra rockets to send it with you, unless you really overprovision your rocket infrastructure.

The resources for your trip to the solar system edge mostly come from Vulcanus and Fulgora, they provide a lot of free materials anyway. It may seem daunting if you've never done it, but by the time you finish Aquilo you'll have a hundred rockets worth of material to build with. The cryo techs and railgun production is really the only limiting factor then, so scale production of them accordingly.

However I didn't do it with "competition speedrun" rules and had used blueprints of the factory essentials for each planet from my blueprint library. Of course you could also save as you land, take your time figuring out the planet and when it works, take a blueprint of your factory and reload to build it quickly without the learning curve.

given my 1.1 experience and some anecdotal data i've seen from other runs, you should be able to get rockets down and researched by 5-10 hours in the run if you're on a good pace. (a good pace isnt required to beat the 40 hour achievement, you merely need an alright pace, it's quite forgiving) I dont have much SA experience yet but from what i've seen the three other planets are fairly trivial, aside from maybe gleba because its a bit of a pita, and aquilo is just a huge timesink, mostly due to it's unique challenges. (expanding is very time consuming compared to other planets)

So i'd recommend playing around in the editor, or in another save trying to build some blueprints in order to speed up the basic stuff. Vulcanus, Fulgora, and Gleba should probably have their own "starter base in a book" to make your life easier. They don't have to be good, just good enough to get you the achievement.

If you're planning on building any space platforms from nauvis i'd recommend at least 5 ideally 10 (i'm very impatient) non speed beaconed rocket silos and honestly, a dedicated belt of copper, and appropriate amount of steel. Or an entirely separate factory block specifically for producing them, since its only copper and steel you can pretty easily spin up a few dedicated furnace arrays using electric furnaces and bots.

Oh and you should probably speedrun bots and nuclear power or spamming solar/steam power.

Personally, i like to play on desert worlds because i find the forest to be a bigger pita than it is just dealing with biters, so if you're comfortable with biters, maybe give that a try, makes building far easier.