Exo One

Unlike a few other folks here I can say that this was a really tough achievement for me, and I popped it just now on my 7th try with about 56 minutes on the clock.

A few beginning considerations for this achievement.

1) This is very much a skills-based achievement. I would recommend going for every other achievement in the game before attempting the speedruns. This is at the very least to help teach yourself how comfortably to fly adeptly, how to know useful quirks of each level, and where you personally tend to struggle. Knowing how to break the sound barrier, and to reach great heights, on nearly every level comes in handy more often than you might think. Furthermore, you might have issues with coordination or with making certain snap judgments, and it is good to know where and how to compensate for it. Each person learns to fly Exo One a little differently; some people are bound to struggle with things that are unimaginably easy to others.

2) Watch speedruns currently being posted on YouTube. The right strategies for tackling speedruns are rapidly evolving at this time, and new speedruns with even near-30-min times are getting posted on the regular. This is the best way to identify if there are any ways to modify your play style in specific contexts. New exploits might also be discovered, which you may only come to know through such videos. To my knowledge, the only major level skip currently known is on Daramulum. It takes a bit of practice, and it is considerably easier if you have at least 3 power-ups before attempting it. (the skip is linked below)


3) If you happen to be a perfectionist like myself, trust yourself to carry through the entirety of the game even if you commit multiple serious mistakes on several levels. It gives you more opportunities for practice, at least, since Exo One lacks a level select. But also! Any time losses associated with mistakes you have made, may not have been as bad as you have realized. You won't know how much it mattered til you are done.

4) Absolutely go for power-ups if they are easy to reach, but if you miss them, just keep going onwards without missing a beat. I have to disagree with Stoic Leonhart's recommendation; it makes a huge difference, especially if you are attempting the Daramulum skip.

5) Remain in disk form nearly at all times (though exceptions do exist situationally). Make sure to apply gravity selectively with to control your angle of approach carefully so you approach upwards slopes at nearly a parallel orientation. If you mash when in contact with the slope, it will greatly diminish the friction of your contact with that slope and will allow you to maintain your speed. This is essential if you are moving at subsonic speeds, since failing to do this will kill your momentum and drop you back into ball form. If you are moving at supersonic speeds, this is still very important, and can be used to leverage the ground effect to keep you at supersonic speeds over great distances.


6) Practice maintaining supersonic speeds as often as you can, including exploiting the ground effect. You know things are going especially well if you have been supersonic for so long your screen goes negative. If you are near the ground, make sure to apply the same rules as (5). If you are supersonic at a great height, make sure you are turning on your high-gravity mode intermittently in order to maintain your speed for as long as possible. (Skip to 23:43 in the following video for an example of maintaining supersonic while at great altitudes)


7) Some considerations on timing:
a) It does not appear that cutscenes factor into your time. I am of the understanding that your time is measured during the periods when you have control of Exo One.
b) I haven't confirmed this rigorously, but I get the impression that restarting levels does not also reset your overall timer for a level. Expect time to accumulate between resets.
c) Exo One speedrunner Zwoopboing mentioned on a recent speedrun comment that collecting power-ups may decrease your overall timer by 30 seconds a pop, though they had not yet confirmed this in their own tests at this time.

(Both the first two videos are also linked by Stoic Leonhart in their solution, and are only included in this guide as well for the purposes of flow. But they are the ones who found them, so all credit to them for that)

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General guidelines I have for each level:

Sagan IV. The beginner level. go for the power-up first, since it is very easy to access and comes very early in the level. Beeline from there directly to the monolith as you can, not worrying about getting into the clouds or anything like that. Make sure you keep close to the ground, applying the principles of (5) whenever possible.

Gnowee. Align yourself in between the tall capacitor-like double-tower structures, which give you great speed boosts, though they can be tricky if you are moving quickly and are even slightly misaligned. go for the power-up on this level, since there are air boosts directly to the powerup. After getting it, drop down in ball form and go supersonic, but make sure you angle yourself back upwards so you don't get trapped within the ravine that takes you through the alien megastructure.

Align yourself again with the double-towers as you enter the tall mountains. You should be moving at a speed that keeps you above the cloud layer. At your own risk, drop into high-gravity ball form from above the cloud layer, breaking the sound barrier on descent. As soon as you reach the upslope on another mountainside, turn into a disk and allow your supersonic speed to carry you to a great height above the cloud layer. From here, you can drop and maintain supersonic speeds for great distances as you make your way towards the monolith. Make sure you aim for the red gates as well, recognizing that you lose control of the camera briefly after a "non-causal object" appears in your field of vision (this can mess up your movement).

(Linked is a clip from Zwoopboing's speedrun, showcasing the sound barrier break technique I mentioned:)


Quirinus III. This place is pretty flat, and it is really easy to get a lot of speed going very quickly. Do not go for the powerup - it is too far out of the way - but use the red gate here to propel yourself forwards. I was able to maintain supersonic speeds with the ground effect for probably about of a third of the distance between the red gate and the monolith after passing through it.

Nautica 1. Ocean level! If you are not careful, you won't skip on the top of the water and will become submerged, which seems to slow you down. Meteorites are constantly falling, which can provide an upwards air burst if you pass near them or are caught in the geysers at the points of collision. If it gets you enough height that you pass into a cloud, you might be able to get high enough to break the sound barrier without burying yourself immediately into the ocean. I was usually not this lucky.

Midway through the level, pick up the powerup by aligning yourself with the red gate on the floating block of debris. This one was easy for me to miss without practice, and I got it for the first time on my final run through the level. After this, just beeline to the monolith. Note that as you approach the monolith, a cutscene will ensue. Your speedrun time, to this point, will be reported in the lower left-hand corner of your screen. On my achievement-getting run I was at about 16 minutes by this point..

Nautica 2. The only non-linear level in Exo One. Note that you can actually start moving well before the text on the screen actually disappears, and the screen actually focuses in on Exo One itself. I watched Zwoopboing make their way high into the atmosphere and then break the sound barrier before they ever actually assumed control of the camera on this level.

Start by going off to the blue monolith fragment that is immediately behind the inactive transport monolith. It will be off to your right from where you start, near the beachhead. From there, speedrunners tend to differ in their strategies, but I personally followed the cliffside using the strategies of (5) until I had an opportunity to gain enough momentum to climb up and over the cliff. The second monolith fragment is at the top of the level, and you can readily reach it once you scale this cliff (in part by smashing into the cliffside in disk mode at a slight upwards, mashing the entire way up). Then, I beelined towards the final monolith fragment, which is on an archipelago at the very back of the level. It is important to have some speed and altitude upon approaching this fragment, since it is on top of a block that can be hard to reach by rolling.

After this, head directly back to the activated monolith in a straight line. Pick up the powerup if you can reach it, since it is on the way. I was never able to actually get this one but speedrunners often go for it.

Daramulum. This level was the hardest one for me. The objective is to get on top of the large slanted flat-topped outcrop of rock at the very start of the level while (a) still in disk mode, and (b) while still having enough charge to maintain disk mode all the way until you are out of bounds. Then, after going OOB, break the sound barrier by dropping towards the left, then stay close to the ground to engage the ground effect. With luck, you should push all the way up to the final stage of the level where the monolith is.

If you have all the powerups I described, you should be able to get enough air just from using (5) in the small water-filled depression right after the hollow log right after the start. I personally found it easier just to restart the level entirely if I misaligned myself and failed to climb on top of the outcrop. If you go OOB but fail to resurface at the final stage of the level, you will be forced to restart.

Some people can maintain supersonic speeds all the way to the monolith. Personally, I barely made it each time, and just used (5) to push my way up the logs to the monolith the old-fashioned way.

Coronides. This one is also really difficult for people, I think. You start out on the peanut asteroid, so what you need to do is engage high-gravity ball mode just as you pick up speed towards the middle section of the peanut. Turn into a disk while mashing , just like in (5) and with Gnowee, and you will shoot yourself off the asteroid at a colossal velocity. Your trajectory should be such that you are pointed directly at the monolith asteroid, while avoiding all the other ones. Remain in disk mode at all times while engaging high-gravity mode occasionally to correct your trajectory. (Note that if you engage high-gravity mode too close to one of the other asteroids, you may become trapped in its gravity well, and that might make your attempt to speedrun this level a wash.)

Sojournus XXIII. This is the biggest RNG one here, since you lose all control of Exo One except for the high-gravity mode and your double-jump. Your objective is to move in the direction of the monolith, but ALSO to give yourself enough height that a lightning bolt fortuitously strikes you, restoring your capabilities temporarily, including gliding and steering. You can do this by following the instructions laid out in Gnowee earlier in this section to shoot yourself into the sky. Note that if you do this in any other direction from start other than towards the monolith, the lightning will not strike you. You'll know if you are able to be struck by lightning once the music starts playing.

Upon getting struck by lightning, angle yourself so you push upwards through and through the clouds. (Don't spend too much time on the ground; if you run out of power, you'll lose all control of Exo One again.) Once you break the cloud layer, drop in high-gravity disk mode for just long enough to break the sound barrier, and then angle yourself back upwards towards the clouds. I was able to maintain supersonic speed on this level nearly all the way to the monolith.

Darwin III. Go for the red gates first. The second one will push you to supersonic speeds, which you may be able to maintain for much of the rest of the oceanic part of the level. You are free to pick up the powerup here if you wish, though it isn't strictly necessary at this point. Once you reach the floating block structures, make sure you always have enough charge to land on top of the next one. Reach the air current to push yourself well up above the cloud layer; here, you should be able to dive into it to break the sound barrier while recharging Exo One in the process. Just keep hopscotching from block to block, breaking the sound barrier and maintaining the ground effect whenever possible.

There are a lot of blocks here that can take you in a lot of different directions, but so long as you orient yourself towards the monolith's light, you should eventually find yourself to a block that has a chain of red gates just past it. Try to maintain supersonic through all of them and it will take you directly to the monolith very quickly.

Obias III. You don't really need the powerups anymore, but go for the powerup anyway because it aligns you very well with the location of the red gate. The mountains are so skinny and steep that traversing them becomes unpredictable, so stay in the flat valleys while working your way towards the powerup. Once you reach the red gate, go through, and you will instantly be pushed out of the difficult-to-traverse mountainous area towards the monolith.

Coelus. Following the Informant (the orange orb) will give you a very light speed boost, and more importantly it will also lead you towards the floating purple fireflies that allow you to boost to supersonic speeds after holding down until the text prompt exhausts itself. Once you go supersonic, modulate your speed using the guideline in (6), jumping from firefly swarm to firefly swarm until you reach the very end. It is really difficult on Coelus to maintain supersonic in a horizontal direction without the fireflies, so definitely wait until you grab at least one swarm before giving it a shot.

Your final time will be revealed as soon as the final singularity forms, and this time will become reflected on your title screen if you broke your previous speed record. (Feel free to play around on Jupiter afterwards, it doesn't take away from your time)

Congrats if you made it through! If not, back to the drawing board. You'll be sure to get it with enough persistence.

I just got this last night with 50m 32s. I'm making this guide short and simple as to not overcomplicate things.

Use the methods in these two videos and you shouldn't have much issue getting the three achievements associated with speed running. Seriously, master the technique in the second video(except for the corkscrew). I mopped up a few achievements on my second run and got pretty good at the method he uses. By the time I attempted my speedrun the third playthrough, I had it down pat.

My personal tips would be:
•Almost never be in ball form. Learn to skim along the ground in disc form using the technique in the video.

•No drifting in the air! Dive to keep momentum going. Hit the sound barrier when you can. In a freak accident I was able to keep that super sonic speed going indefinitely by skimming along the ground and jumping. Typically, you can extend the time you're at that speed by tapping the dive button briefly and repeatedly.

•Hit those air currents(white lines).

•I ignored the power upgrades. I didn't go out of my way for a single one, and while there were a couple instances that I wished I had a bit more juice, I personally didn't need them. The first two levels have upgrades right in front of you though, so that's something to consider.

•Learn how to slingshot around the asteroids on the space level using dives. I did it without touching the rocks and completely skipped the second rock. I had a hard time with this level my first time through so I think this is just a matter of experience.

• Hold the glide button at the end of each cutscene. Some levels will let you start gliding immediately(because you're shooting down from space) instead of starting on the ground in ball form.

• Don't go for this on your first run. Get used to the game first. That should be a given though.

• I don't think this tip will be useful for the speedrun although you may find yourself using it at some point(like climbing the huge rock on Nautica for another achievement). You can scale nearly vertical walls by gliding into them at an angle and mashing the jump button while turning into them at the same time.