They're not exactly speedruns, but there are a few challenge runs I've thought about.
Pacifist Run
The objective is to complete the game while finishing as few battles as possible. Due to the practical inevitability of random encounters, running away without taking any other option is acceptable. Currently, this challenge run looks like this:
- Immediately submit to the Overqueen on FIRST-14.
- Do not challenge or insult the rival on Mhen'ga, thus avoiding the Dane battle.
- During the Stellar Tether, defeat Tam and Khorgan and grab the Platinum-190, resulting in the destruction of Tarkus*. Khorgan is technically an optional encounter, but...
- Bribe the Nyrean Praetorians with the Platinum-190. This allows you to skip fighting both them and the Crystal Goo Incubator.
- Marry Taivra to avoid fighting both her and Queensguard. Requires a non-Hard personality.
- Zheng Shi has three mandatory fights: Urbolg, Teyaal and the Shock Hopper. Skip the fight to get into the place by befriending Kiro, recruiting Paige or guessing correctly.
- Sneak into the upper levels by disguising yourself as a slave, then don't fight Agrosh. This will result in you becoming addicted to Ardia, but that's easily mitigable.
- Fight Feruze, then have sex with her. Skipping that fight requires befriending the Rat's Raiders, which requires at least three victories and defeats combined against them, and also prevents you from having sex with her.
- On Dhaal, skip the Feruze fight. This is only possible if you had sex with her previously.
*If destroying Tarkus is too much for a pacifist run, acceptable alternatives are: a) also beating Kaska and disarming the bomb, or b) only fighting Tam during the Stellar Tether, then fighting the Nyrean Praetorians and Crystal Goo Incubator while avoiding the Nyrean Princess. Either way results in one more fight and one fewer destroyed planets.
The only sidequests you can successfully complete are those that don't involve combat. As such:
- Getting XP will be a rare occurrence, so you won't level up often. As such, most fights will be quite hard (but not impossible seeing as null_blank has done a level 1 run).
- Your best source of money will be to farm savicite and lucinite on Uveto, whore at Beth's, or win at blackjack.
- The only distress call you can answer is Kiro's first one. Her second includes one unskippable fight (the Advanced Herm Sexbot), so don't get her to 100% Trust unless you want to lose her for the rest of the game. Other characters gated behind distress calls (e.g. Saendra, Zaalt, Ushamee) can't be met.
- Anno cannot be recruited unless Tarkus is destroyed. As such, the Marina-Galina foursome and giving Anno mods are impossible.
- Penny cannot be recruited without turning her into a bimbo or cumslut. On her first interaction, you'll need to have sex with the captured zil.
- None of the other sidequests on Mhen'ga can be completed. As such, Kase cannot be recruited and Quinn's tribe is inaccessible.
- Kara's and Shade's first meeting must be resolved by flirting with Shade. Further interactions with Kara are impossible.
- Uveto can only be reached by befriending Shade, then recovering the Myrellion probe.
- Do not trigger the Siege of Korg'ii Hold unless you want to lose access to the Hold and all its NPCs. As such, Eitan is unrecruitable.
- The Frostwyrm cannot be romanced.
- Syri's personal quest can't be done, so you'll miss out on getting her BionaHole and Schora's EM date.
- Kimber's interactions cannot be progressed past the first batch of items you can give her.
- The pexiga cannot be uplifted.
- You'll need to be very intelligent to complete the Bothrioc Diplomacy quest.
- Probably more that I can't think of right now.
Monogamy Run
The objective is to complete the game while only having sex with one NPC (who will henceforth be referred to as your partner). This is fairly easy so long as you don't lose fights, which isn't too difficult. Optional rules are: 1) group sex is allowed so long as your partner is involved; 2) generic NPCs (e.g. most unnamed hostile encounters) don't count. The rule(s) of this run mean that, ignoring all the sex scenes you miss out on, only one of the following is possible:
- Seeing any content past initial for one of the following: Syri, Erra, Del, the Frostwyrm. If your partner is Anno, Syri may appear in a few scenes, but anything else is right out.
- Recruiting Anno without blowing up Tarkus. If group sex is not enabled, modding her is impossible.
- Recruiting Shekka. As this requires not blowing up Tarkus, it is impossible to recruit both Anno and Shekka in the same run.
- Encountering Shade during KaraQuest2 without fighting her.
- Accessing KiroQuest and everything gated behind it. Also, rescue Kiro from blue balls without being a Tech Specialist.
- Recruiting one of the following: Gianna, Celise.
- Getting addicted to one character with an addiction mechanic (e.g. Ardia, Luca, Lumi).
- Being Sera's dom or sub, and thus her achieving financial stability. Recruiting Sera if she's not your partner is possible, but she'll be stuck at 0 Obedience. Being Sera's sub without group sex enabled will likely require save-scumming, and will make completing her Disco 3000 Quest impossible.
- Probably more that I can't think of right now.
There are also the following things to note:
- It is impossible to combine this with a pacifism run as stated above, since that requires having sex with no fewer than four NPCs.
- Unless generic NPCs don't count, the amount of pregnancy content you can experience is limited; two different types if the NPC is capable of both impregnating you and getting pregnant, one type if they can do one, and none if neither.
- Any group sex that requires having previously had sex with an NPC that isn't your partner can't be accessed.
- You can romance or otherwise gain max Affection with multiple characters, even if they're not your partner. Examples include Fisi, Embry, Kiro and Saendra.
- It's possible for Kaede to be your partner, but it requires a specific sequence of events: blow up Tarkus, recruit Anno, and attend the Puppyslutmas event with her. Then, meet Kaede on Myrellion and you can have sex with her.
- Probably more that I can't think of right now.
Chastity Run
The objective is to complete the game without having sex at all. Everything listed under the monogamy run's "only one of the following is possible" is impossible, as is all pregnancy content. If masturbation isn't allowed either, you'll be spending a lot of money on Chill and/or Focus Pills.
