Winning fast

A run ends when the clock says so, so the only levers are the stage and Hurry.

"Winning" here means surviving to the stage's time limit. At that moment the stage is complete and you have your 500 gold; from then on a Reaper arrives every minute to end the run, unless you have Endless on. Killing one is optional, and the opposite of quick.

The important consequence: your damage does not shorten a run. A build that clears the screen at minute five and one that scrapes through at minute twenty-nine both finish at exactly the same time. Nothing on the level-up screen makes the clock go faster. Two things do.

Pick a shorter stage

Not every stage is 30 minutes. The shortest one this guide knows of is Il Molise at 15 minutes, and there are 20-minute stages between the two. The Maps page prints each stage's own limit, so you can pick by it.

Turn on Hurry

Hurry runs the stage clock at double speed, so a 30-minute stage is over in half that in real time, and it grants 25% more experience while it is on. It is a permanent unlock rather than a difficulty setting: the Sorceress' Tears relic, found in Gallo Tower, switches it on for every stage you have unlocked.

The catch is the one everybody hits. The clock doubles and you do not. Waves, bosses and chests still arrive on their in-game timestamps, so each of them reaches you with half as many levels as usual behind it. A Hurry run is a run where you are permanently behind, which is why the planner pushes Growth and Cooldown hard the moment you switch it on.

Together those two levers are the whole of it: the shortest stage with Hurry on is about 15 minutes of clock in half the real time, and there is no third trick. Gold Fever, despite the name, is a gold frenzy rather than anything to do with the clock.

What to take when you are racing

Survival, not damage - because damage buys you nothing here and survival buys you the whole run. Laurel and Clock Lancet are the pair people converge on: frozen enemies deal no damage, and Laurel covers the mistake you make while under-levelled. Push Growth so the levels arrive sooner, and take the evolutions you can actually finish before the clock runs out rather than the ones you would build over half an hour.

One honest caveat: none of this is what the achievements ask for. Every timed achievement in the game is a minimum - survive twenty minutes, reach minute thirty-one - so Hurry gets you through a stage sooner without getting you to those any faster.