First and foremost I highly recommend practicing with a macro. These essentially just spam 'e' to breeze through dialogue. This will save you time — so you can spend more of it on practicing — and also from carpal tunnel (that's a half joke). You can download the macro here: https://www.speedrun.com/star_fetchers_pilot/resources/3gfaf

• Why I personally encourage macro% runs (skipping dialogue) over mash% runs (mashing 'e') is because it's equally fair and nobody has an unfair advantage just because they have a better keyboard (a lower latency keyboard or physically easier to mash on. This factor alone affects time by A LOT)

While you're on the speedrun site you can also check out the other resources for level grinding under the resources tab. Be warned they are a bit old and buggy, though they suffice. Note that they do not work on the EP1 demo at the time of writing.

(This section will soon be outdated when the new physics system and player controller changes from the new demo get moved over to the main branch)

I'll be using my speedrun for reference so that there's a visual tied with the guide. I'll leave timestamps in this guide and in the comment section of the video, you can follow along here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJewq3p0w6w

Pig Skip 0:57 No tips for this one as it's very timing based. It's worth practicing to get it down consistently though for the extra seconds it saves

Mio Dio Dash Kill 3:08 Have your cursor at the middle-ish right of the screen (but a little lower). I recommend doing this in advance while you're taking out the trash since once you enter dialogue your cursor is no longer visible (and you'll just have to guess-work it). As soon as the fight scene starts start dashing and holding click to have your sword out. They will die instantly. Screenshot of cursor position: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2228779642344597916/2D56CB669BA1126D04D17370D8ADB1A9B8CB2DC1/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

(how do I make images embed......)

I'm not going to waste your time explaining combat through text, feel free to gather methods from the video above. You can experiment with adding in more of Zambezi's dashes or possibly finding glitches (there are some I've encountered that would save time by glitching through the floor, but I couldn't figure out how to reproduce them). You can also pick up some tricks from my run linked above, especially Satan's strat which should be the most optimal way of killing him.

And here's this video for a better example of area 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhcDezNjWU

Reference video: https://youtu.be/DA0ntvgY-zg?si=k5wDOavHTqO_hgTT

• Ledge Drop 0:47 If you press S + Space too quickly after the cutscene you'll just end up jumping which can make you lose a couple precious seconds if you panic on top of that. I've had trouble with this in the past, but if I remember correctly you just have to hold S just a fraction of a second longer before pressing space
  
  
• Quick Dial 1:20 While you pull up your phone by pressing tab you'll want to double click at around the area of sanyati's hat. This will enter the call menu and also call the fixer. Percision is important since it's very easy to accidentally call Dad by being slightly off the mark.
  
  
• Button Shot 1:30 aim a little lower than the top of the screen and throw. This is mostly a timing thing but it's fairly easy to hit the button before you arrive at the door. Also slightly unrelated but let me know if you struggle with accidentally interacting with zambezi when trying to enter the door, I'm just curious.
  
  
• Bone Tag 1:49 The minigame is not very forgiving, you can't go out of the white part even a tiny bit. However it's easy to practice if you purposely fail when you're almost done drawing. I recommend retrying the minigame a bit untill you can do it reliably and fast enough. If you finish it quickly the minigame will end early saving you some seconds.

Again combat can be gathered from the video. It's already very optimal, however there is a glitch that lets you phase through the floor in the room before the boss. It's very hard to reproduce though. Here's about the area you need to move through if anyone wants to give it a shot: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2228779642344598442/28FB5330D94C49E8F851A9E0D22A0A9BD00D7846/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

(why are they so low res....)

Final Boss Instakill 3:25 Have a fire extinguisher on you and keep your mouse at about the position shown in the timestamp (plan it before you enter the room as your cursor will disappear once you enter the door). Once the dialogue is done wait a fraction of a second for the boss to jump then throw the extinguisher. Doing it instantly will cause you to miss with the position provided. It's probably possible to aim lower and be able to click sooner to save like.... 0.2 seconds. I never got to it though.

That's all for now, best of luck with your runs!