By Wonderis_Wonderis_. Last updated 4 May 2020

[The Basics]

- Always have Faster Movement out of Combat enabled, it makes every run significantly faster.

-Use the Advanced Gungeons & Draguns loot profile:

᛫ It has significantly better shop loot

᛫ chests and consumables (ammo, keys, health) drop much more frequently on clearing normal rooms.

- Spamming the shoot button with most pistols and other weapons results in faster fire.

- Use teleporters to save time during the run:

᛫ After killing the boss and(or not) taking the loot, use the teleporter in the elevator room to save time instead of walking.

᛫ When you went the wrong way and have to go back to a different path.

᛫ When the teleporter in a room is closer to the path you need to go to, use it instead of walking.

- Passive Reloading:

When your weapons are holstered, they will passively reload at roughly their normal reloading speed, with this, you can use a combination of two weapons to constantly switch between them when the clip runs out and have a consistent damage output.

- Know your positioning:

While clearing rooms, it is good to always position yourself in such a way that you have the access to killing upcoming enemies as fast as possible, also it's good to know which wave is the last one so you could go straight for the exit of the room while killing the remaining enemies.

- Quick Switching:

You can choose two guns in the gun menu so they become "Favored", this way pressing the gun menu button once will switch between those two weapons (Or for keyboard+mouse users you can just use the 123456789 keys). This is very useful for "Quick Killing" enemies by damaging them with one weapon and then quickly switching to a different one and finishing them with it; A good example is something like The Blasphemy and The Elephant Gun, you damage the enemy with one and then with one press switch to the other weapon to finish the enemy instead of waiting to be able to swing with blasphemy again, this applies the other way around as well.

- Form Proper Opinions: Yes, this sounds very dumb but a lot of new(er) runners often misconcept some weapons for being bad or not useful, when in reality they are good or even great. Just try out guns more instead of being biased.

[ADVANCED]

- Mapping. Mapping is definitely one of the most important parts of speedrunning this game, each floor is readable and there are guides to them. Spleen's Example Guides, OJSN's refined guide and my own guide for bullet hell.

᛫ Keep of the Lead Lord -> https://imgur.com/a/f0d87 [Spleen]

᛫ Gungeon Proper -> https://imgur.com/a/Fzb1C [Spleen]

᛫ Black Powder Mine -> https://imgur.com/a/IjdXc [Spleen]

᛫ Hollow -> https://imgur.com/a/6nKlO [Spleen]

᛫ Forge -> https://imgur.com/a/BGLZk [Spleen]

᛫ Bullet Hell -> https://imgur.com/a/b4V7Z [Wonderis_]

᛫ All 5 Chambers by OJSN -> https://www.speedrun.com/Enter_the_Gungeon/guide/1ijr7

Both OJSN's and Spleen's guide are awesome, OJSN's is better if you want to learn what certain rooms do and how they matter in the generation, it also has the most recent terminology and knowledge added into it (and it will be updated in future), while Spleen's guide is better as a form of reference because it has actual in-game screenshots in it. So I advise you to use both of the guides.

Note: We do not include Oubliette&Abbey generations because we do not run all areas.

To spot things like loops, upcoming chest rotations and boss room location think about how the whole map is fit together. The simplest example is the Dragun arena on Forge, the room is big and tall so it usually needs a lot of space in the generation, which most of the time leads to upper-map boss location and rarely under the spawn.

- Gundrop/Dropstrat . Gundrop is a bug where you drop your weapons and pick them up to instantly reload them, this greatly increases the speed of any run (except blessed of course) as it almost eliminates the need for reloading. Gundrop can also be used to increase the fire rate of guns, a great example would be the AWP that you can constantly drop and pick up for it to have more than double the fire rate. This bug can also be abused to stay on a certain mode of two-mode weapons like M16, Shellegun, Combined Rifle and etc.

<WARNING> This bug should not be used with weapons like the Rad Gun, Gilded Hydra and other level-specific guns, as it will reset their level to the first one. However, this doesn't work on gunther and works different on Polaris: It will reset the gun to level 1 but it will take only two kills to get it back to level 3.

Showcase of the trick:

- Guard Flash. Guard Flash is a bug where with Blasphemy you execute a combo of [Swing+Reload+Turn Away] really fast which amplifies the initial melee swing and makes it hit almost all enemies in the room and delete most of the bullets from the way you turn to. This trick is very useful for clearing out very small enemies, finishing off injured enemies, or in general killing enemies when they are too far away to rely on the Blasphemy's god awful accuracy, however be aware that the range in it's maximum goes up to the limits of your vision.

<WARNING> This bug does not work when it's done completely vertically, there are certain angles at which you are supposed to be aiming and turning around to, they are approximitely like in this image -> https://imgur.com/a/i9hHC <-

NOTE: This trick only works at full hp, if you are not on full hp then the guard flash WILL NOT be executable (you can still do it once after losing full hp but after that it becomes impossible).

Video Explanation of the bug:

- ^ Chain Flashing ^

Chain Flashing is one of the tricks you can use to guard flash faster. After you do a Guard Flash, if you change to another weapon and back to Blasphemy, you can Guard Flash again. This works because blasphemy essentially has instant Passive Reloading so changing to a different weapon after a guard flash (which forces a double tap reload on blasphemy) and switching back to it fully reloads it, thus you can keep chaining the flashes whenever you need to kill a lot of enemies.

Video Showcase of Chain Flashing: https://www.twitch.tv/wonderis_/clip/TastyBumblingSandstormCharlieBitMe

- Table Flipping. Table Flipping is a certain trick that requires you to flip tables. When you flip a table, a considerable amount of invincibility-frames are given TO THE actual player, which means in some rooms you can flip a table to avoid dodging and get more damage into enemies by shooting more.

Video Showcase of the Trick:

- Double Tap Reload. Double tap reload is a trick used on blasphemy for protection and pushing ability. To execute it you need to be at full hp, swing at least once and then press reload twice (or just swing and reload, much like guard flash). Effects: Projectiles around you will be deleted and enemies near you will be pushed away. Use cases: Pushing crowds of enemies into pits, rushing into a crowd of enemies and using it for protection and as a setup for guard flash, pure protection use to save the full hp on blasphemy, etc.

note: Double Tap Reload also activates when you do the guard flash.

[Character Specifics]

|Convict| Starts with: A sawed off (16max damage per shot) that can one-shot normal bullet kins on floor one if all pellets hit; A budget revolver with 18.2 dps if you spam-click shoot; A molotov that is very useful for clearing out crowds and for first couple of bosses for extra damage; A passive for enragement when getting hit, results in 2x damage output and instantly reloads your current weapon, this can grant a very big boost in room and boss clearing.

Generally the fastest character out of the four starting ones because of the starter weapon advantage (especially the pistol) and molotov on early floors, as well the enraging photo that can make a huge difference in damage output therefore speeding the run up a lot.

|Huntress| Starts with: A crossbow (20 damage per shot) that one-shots normal bullet kin on first and second floors; A rusty revolver with 15 dps if you spam-click shoot; A corgi that has a 5% chance to dig up a consumable or ammo.

Roughly the second fastest character out of the four starting ones due to starting weapon advantages because crossbow and a very decent pistol clear out the first two floors very fast.

|Marine| Starts with: A marine sidearm with 13.5 dps that Cannot be spam-click shot; A supply drop that calls for a single ammo drop; A military training manual that increases reload times by 20%, decreases weapon spread by 17%, decreases charging weapon charge times by 16.7%.

The third fastest character out of four starting ones, has a pretty weak starting pistol but a very good active and passive.

|Pilot| Starts with: A rogue special with 12.5 dps that Cannot be spam-click shot; A trusty lockpick that has a 50% chance to unlock chests for free; A disarming personality that gives a 15% discount in shops; A hidden compartment that increases max ammo of all guns by 10% and grants an extra active slot.

By far the slowest character out of all four, pistol is tediously slow and the passives don't become useful until you actually get a setup.

|Robot| Starts with: A robot's right hand with 19.2 dps when spam-click shot; A coolant leak that sprays water you can electrify for crowds; Battery bullets which decrease the spread of guns by 50% and makes shots electrify water.

A very fast character that has a rapid two first floors start because of the very good starting weapon and coolant leak that deal with crowds very well. As well the accuracy upgrade makes some very huge difference in a run if you've got the right weapons (i.e shotguns, crown of guns, gunzheng).

|BULLET| Starts with: A blasphemy, sword dealing 14 damage in melee swings that delete bullets and 14 damage in beam swords (for a total of 28); Live ammo which increases the dodge roll damage to 15 and you don't take any contact damage.

By far the fastest character out of all 6 of them, The blasphemy gives off a huge speed boost in all meanings, both movement (Dodge Roll+Swing Combo) and damage, because the weapon clears off the first four floors VERY fast and you aren't as reliable on other weapons for room clearing, however quick switching accompanies the Blasphemy very well.

[Character Specific To-do's]

Convict: Taking damage in rooms with very tanky enemies is very important if you have spare health and you trust yourself with health management, you can also take damage on bosses too but that's going too far and most of the time activates dps caps on bosses.

You want to stay pretty close to the enemies as missing shots will severely hinder the damage output.

On the first floor if you are in the right positions you should kill off normal bullet kin with a sawed off as it one shots them if all of the pellets hit.

Huntress: The crossbow is all though, not the easiest weapon to Gundrop but it can end up as a very good boost in damage output on early floors especially versus enemies like gun nuts and lead maidens.

Marine: On marine you usually want to start the first floor by finding a chest and getting a decent/good gun to use instead of your starter pistol as it is a very slow one.

The ammo drop should be saved for the most critical moments when it will benefit the run's speed the most, i.e - refilling a boss killer weapon or your primary room clearing weapon.

Pilot: On pilot, it is VERY important to find a weapon chest on the first floor before going to the boss because his pistol is very slow and does a horrible and an unreliable job of killing bosses.

Lockpick should NEVER be used unless you meet a chest when you have absolutely no keys because almost every tier has top-notch speedrunning loot in it so you can't risk breaking it, especially on such a character as pilot where you need all the guns in the start to actually be fast.

Robot: Nothing special really, a very simple character.

Bullet: Bullet starts off with blasphemy, which has the aforementioned guard flash trick that can strongly speed up the run in certain places, it's a definite to-learn thing.

When you are not at full hp and you have any heart containers (such as heart holster, master rounds and etc) you can drop them so you won't have empty hearts and you will retrieve the beam attack, however this does mean you are giving up on that heart container unless you are planning to come back for it after the boss (that might drop health) which is a very severe time loss.

[Boss Specific Things]

Trigger Twins: Trying to keep both of the twins in your sight is very important because to get the fastest clear you need to not miss any shots. One of the "pro"-strats for this boss is to damage them both to a very low amount of health and then finishg them off with a blank/gun, which depending on how the fight went, can save around 5-10 seconds.

Gatling Gull: Loop da Loop. This boss is all about looping around him and being very focused since to kill him the fastest you will need to not use dodge rolls and just sidestep instead so you are able to shoot all the time.

Bullet King: Pattern Abuse. Bullet King is by far the most abusable boss in this game next to mine flayer and ammoconda (if you can pull those off), the pattern abuse is shown in this video -> . Basically all you need to do is stay under him and when he throws the molotov you just move a bit to the side because he always throws the molotov in your direction.

Gorgun: You can generally start off her fight by just baiting her to get onto the higher part of the arena, which makes the fight arguably a bit faster since the dodging positions become much more simplified and if you have weapons like sling, membrane or other bouncing-related weapons, it can be quite useful.

Ammoconda:The strategy for this boss is basically to play "catch-up" with the snek by loop da looping and baiting the sneak towards you for easier dodging and easier damage input. If you have a very strong boss weapon it is mostly alright to just ignore the addons completely and let her eat them (or at least shoot them once with a high damage weapon since she regenerates less health the more the addon is injured), however if you have just baseline consistent damage weapons like let's say an Ak-47, it is a good consideration to take out the addons before the conda gets to them.

Beholster: It is usually better to stay on the sides of the fight and just micrododge or stay in the bottom and slash away all the shots if you have blasphemy. This boss is very simple so not much to say about him.

Mine Flayer: It is usually better to stay on the bottom of the arena (however with controllers the camera is weird in that spot so most controller players stay on the side) because it's the cheesiest spot where you can dodge majority of the stuff coming at you by simply sidestepping and by "majority" I mean basically all of it. The mine summong attack has two different variations: One is a variation where the running mines have randomly set directions and speed and just run in a circle, the other one is where the mines go right to your position and this is where you can abuse the patter by simply getting a bit closer to the mine flayer and baiting all of the mines into that spot and then gradually moving downwards and continuing shooting and dodging the upcoming shots from mineflayer.

Treadnught: This fight is relatively simple because most of the time you can just ring around the rosie with the boss around a single pillar and occassionaly kill the incoming addons.

Cannonbalrog: In this fight most of the stuff you need to do is just simple micrododging, however, when balrog is invisible you can still hurt him with blasphemy or shoot some homing weapons because they will home onto his old position and then right onto him again when he appears back, it's a good kind of "set trap" thing to do if you've got something like scrambler.

Wallmonger: Simple micrododging, don't attempt to switch sides too much because most of the time it's a useless (even a hurtful) habit that you shouldn't keep. Weapons like SAA, Charge shot, slingshot, buzzsaw, meat boy gun and etc are very good on this boss because it is very easy to get bouncing damage on this boss.

High Priest: When entering the fight, it is better to not shoot the priest until he starts the first attack as this severely decreases the chance of him disappearing into invis mode right at the start of the fight. Blasphemy can also hit the high priest when he is invisible just like with balrog, you'll just have to swing at the post he disappeared at.

Kill Pillars: This fight implies some simple patterns, a very small pre-blank trick and good luring to not get hit on the chase attack. Piercing and AoE weapons rule on this boss as weapons like Railgun or Mourning Star have a very high chance of killing all of the pillars at the same time therefore skipping the second phase. (example of how the preblanking trick works , in the clip I used an explosive weapon but you can just blank before they start the attack and you will yield exact same results)

The Dragun: This fight is best done in the middle bottom part of the arena and occasional slight moves to the sides. There is also a pre-blank trick involved with the knives that removes them before they get to the wall, the timing is roughly on when the first knive flies out, that's where you hit the blank and that way you get rid of both the knives.

The Lich: The first two phases are all about how well you can micrododge and keep on without dodge rolling to maximize damage ouput, the third phase however has a very strong pre-blank on one of his attacks where the whole screen is filled by bullets and you get walls from the sides coming at you. The timing is roughly when the Lich flies up to the middle to start the attack, that's where you press the blank, What this does is it makes the arena completely harmless while the lich is just spinning around and doing absolutely nothing for a solid 15ish seconds (maybe less maybe more) so you can get a lot of free damage into him, without this pre-blank you would have to do a handful amount of dodge rolls therefore sacrificing on some DPS that could be made.

〖EXTRAS〗

[COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS]

This portion of the guide is not so much a guide part but more of a mythbusters part.

Misconception #1 - "Long corridors lead to the path of the boss". Not necessarily, long corridors are often used to squeeze a boss room out of certain generations or like in the case of some Forge generations, yes, to make a path to the boss. Many people say this as one of their first to-go tips on speedrunning this game and well it's not completely wrong, it's often incorrect as well because long corridors much more often lead to wrong paths and whatnot.

Misconception #2 - "The boss room is always very far away from the spawn". Not really. This isn't the binding of isaac. Gungeon can have very variable room positions ranging from super far away to even very-close-to-spawn ones (example: http://prntscr.com/iarvox )

[Pause Glitch]

Pause Glitch is a glitch that's used to stop the in-game timer while the game keeps running on the pause screen, allowing the player to confuse game logic and do things like teleporting, waiting out for animations to finish to not waste and things like that, as such, this glitch has been Banned in normal categories and has only been allowed in Boss Rush where it has it's own category Pause Glitch%.

Video Explanation of the glitch:

⟬The End. ⟭

This guide was mainly aimed to be a very detailed rewrite of Micland's and Tekkera's guide but with a lot of newer discoveries and tricks included in it.

This guide was composed by Wonderis_ with the help of several people from our speedrunning discord such as: Wonderis_, QuantumKris, EtG_OJSN, Spleen, Phantom Saber, Tyredstar and Teddy.