The Heart of the Cards: RNG and Speedrunning

Speedrunning is a discipline that could best be described as a science, albeit a somewhat erratic one. The aim is to learn a game so perfectly that fractions of a second are relevant to a world record, It’s not enough to simply be good at a game; you want to know exactly which items to pick up and how many hits each boss needs as well. It’s incredible to watch from the outside, and it’s a daunting field to get into for many people. 

Most games have specific patterns to learn; the levels are always the same, the items can reliably be found underneath a chair, or behind some boxes. It’s a fixed affair, one that is a test of memory as much as skill, but one that aims to take the attempts at randomness that games make, and reduce them to predictable and controllable algorithms. This is why I’ve always viewed it as more of a science than anything else. Sure, there are breakthroughs here and there, but there is a correct way to do things if you want the best results. 

This is all good and well for most games, but what about when games are inherently built on RNG? What if the whole point of the game is to offer an unpredictable world to master? Roguelikes and plenty of sandbox games all offer players a chance to replay the same game thousands of times without ever having the same experience. They offer as close to infinity as our brains can handle, and yet, despite this chaos, people have chosen to speedrun them. If some kind of devil possesses those who speedrun, what exactly is it that possesses someone who speedruns a game that is designed to be random? 

To find out I sat down with Ryan Uchima (Spooty) who speedruns Cadence of Hyrule, Marcus Driskell (StoneAgeMarcus) who speedruns The Binding of Isaac, and Iain Denison (Anti Flame) who speedruns Slay the Spire, to find out all about speedrunning this very special kind of chaos.

Spooty’s introduction to Cadence of Hyrule came before the game was even out “The game’s predecessor, Crypt of the NecroDancer, was something I’d put thousands of hours into over the years prior.” Their story gets particularly interesting because “The game developers contacted me last February, saying they’re interested in bringing me out to their offices to do some testing for an upcoming game and getting my perspective on it as a NecroDancer speedrunner… and I knew that I’d be running Cadence of Hyrule once it fully released.”  

StoneAgeMarcus started because of a fellow streamer called NuRelic. “I ended up buying the game, trying it, and not liking it at all…Streamers were giving away the new DLC, and a friend Lobsterosity won a couple of copies and gave me his extra even after I told him I never played the game. I was told to give the game one more chance. I did and the Afterbirth DLC changed everything.” 

Isaac actually changes fairly often too. “Approximately every 6 months we get a new speedrunning season. It changes the character lineup, the format, and what bosses you run to. That’s when I started to dive into it. Being able to play the best version of Isaac and keep things fresh really flips the concept of the roguelike on its head.”

Anti Flame had a more lighthearted answer “Good question – in retrospect, I think a part of me hated myself. I only came to speedrun STS after the implementation of fast mode, shortly after I picked the game up. I realised that there was scope to reduce the time spent on any particular fight in the game and I was invested in the idea of streaming in my spare time, so it seemed like a natural fit to ‘fill a niche’ and speedrun a game whilst streaming that not many people (at all) had attempted, especially with the advent of a mode that expedited the process! I’m also painfully extroverted, so I love interacting with people – which definitely cost me good runs on more than one occasion.”

Each of the games presents the player with different challenges, especially when it comes to speedrunning. Spooty explains “Cadence of Hyrule is a relatively short run by most standards” which doesn’t sound like an issue, but it actually means that you have to take in a lot more information in a far shorter time, which means that “It’s very easy to overlook a crucial detail or make a miscalculation with so many random factors at play”. 

StoneAgeMarcus thinks the biggest challenge in Issac is the same as in any other game: the grind. “Being committed to speedrunning any game is a big ask if you want to truly get a competitive time or challenge for a WR. With Isaac, the RNG just takes it to a whole new level. Stringing together 7+ straight runs of great RNG can feel as likely as winning the lotto on certain days.”

But what specific challenges do you face when mastering something that never stays the same? Spooty mentioned a specific half-block that can spawn which can change the pace of a run completely. They also explain that “Equipment drops being randomized can also contribute considerably to a run’s difficulty. Ideally one generally wants a strong weapon like a flail or rapier, and probably some strong Glass weapons as well, but sometimes those don’t present themselves.” t’s not all bad though, because “seeds with poor equipment availability might be frustrating when one is going for new records, but it’s always fun to see which of the racers can best use a minimal build efficiently in a race setting. Even bad RNG typically has its place in this game.”

Isaac is more about the items than anything, “The power creep in the game is pretty high so when you can start to string 4-5 of those top tier items together rooms just start to melt”. Though, as StoneAgeMarcus explains, brute force isn’t everything. “you can have the strongest build possible but if you are wandering the desert for 40 days and 40 nights because of bad maps and floor layouts you are gonna have a bad time. Clearing 120 rooms vs 150 will always be felt in that final time.”

Anti Flame explains that things have actually gotten a little easier as the ability to give the first three fights 1hp each became the standard. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that the developers were paying attention to the speedrunning community. “e actually had some influence on the devs when it came to the ‘portal’ event (which teleported you to the final boss, and would only appear early in the 3rd act) – we voiced that this could destroy speedrunning the game and they were already aware (Casey and Anthony were amazed and bewildered that anyone would speedrun their game, but knew of our small community), so they introduced a time-locked restriction – the event can only appear after ~13 minutes, well behind any of the recorded speedrun times at the time. That was a real win for us”

With  these games being built around a core of RNG, , how do you try and reduce that? Strategies differ depending on the game. 

Cadence of Hyrule is a rhythm game at its core, which makes for a very different strategy to the other games. “Since the game is turn-based centred around the tempo of the music, one can pause the game for a brief moment while waiting for the next beat in the song to arrive. This gives one an opportunity to look at the mini-map and plot out a route without losing any time on movement.” It also has multiple characters to choose from, which impaces gameplay.“Using Zelda’s special defensive ability, Nayru’s Love, to its fullest potential is arguably one of the most important parts of running Story Mode in Cadence of Hyrule.”

Isaac comes down to something that a lot of us players will do anyway, resetting the run until you get a good item. “Some tricks with shops/angels deals give you a little more ability to find mapping and knowing which way you need to go is always a sure-fire way to save 3-6 minutes on a good run.” Knowledge is power, after all. 

Anti Flame has a lot of pride in doing unseeded runs in Slay the Spire. The thing that helps the run become a little more manageable is manipulating the game by playing through to a specific point “The first three times you ever arrive at the boss of each Act, you’ll face a specific one, and it just so happens that, by playing trigger the Act 1 boss twice, and the Act 2 and 3 bosses once apiece, you can line up the optimal three bosses (Slime Boss, Collector and Deca/Donu)”. This specific set of bosses allows the Ironclad character to clear it as fast as possible with the preferred Whirlwind and Strength builds. 

It goes a little deeper with Slay the Spire though, and mostly because of the way that items are unlocked in the game. “We also level specific characters to specific levels (from memory, Ironclad 0 or 1/Silent 5/Defect 3) in order to condense the card/relic pool as much as possible whilst unlocking specific relics and cards.” It’s not just gameplay though; you also gain a lot by using the right control inputs “It also took me the longest time to bite the bullet and adopt number keys, but they’re really important for expediting runs. Non-combat hotkeys were already crucial for executing a couple of small skips (mapping out to skip the “fog” after resting at a campsite and immediately going to the next node, for example), but the combat hotkeys are almost as important for shaving off seconds from your runs.”

The common throughline with speedrunning these games isn’t about eliminating the RNG all-together but finding a way to minimise without changing the game itself. It’s not about seeded runs that allow you to learn what’s coming up; it’s about doing your best to give yourself a good chance with the RNG that you are lumbered with. 

It’s a fascinating way of playing games that aren’t like anything the average gamer would ever do. It’s also interesting to see the pride that the runners have in both the games they run, but also their adherence to the games and the way they were designed to be played. It feels like carving out your own little safe haven amidst the chaos that you’re sailing in. It no doubt differs depending on the games that you play, but staying true to the game youlove in order to speedrun it makes a lot of sense when you think about it, even if it can lead to some frustrating losses or a lot of resetting and praying for the best.