# Improving

To improve your times, play more. But of course, there's more to it than just that.

# Learning the Game

Learning the game you're running will improve your times more than anything. Most new runners start off by following a route during a run. Learning the route will lower your times substantially since you won't have to use time to look at or think about how to apply what the route says. A cheat sheet for things like conversations can usually still be used without time loss.

If you reset your runs much, you'll likely end up more proficient in the earlier portions of your run, and weaker in the rest. Using saves to practice individual sections in isolation can greatly improve your times in a full run.

Learning smaller aspects can help push your times down to top levels. Things like optimizing your cursor placement in anticipation of your next moves, and building muscle memory to speed through movement sections without having to think or react with each click. You can learn a lot of this by watching top runs, or you can figure some out by going through the game and slowly analyzing sections yourself.

# RNG Manipulation

There are some games and categories where using RNG manipulation is all but necessary for getting a top run. This is because it can, for example, make a puzzle consistent that otherwise may be randomized. This can save anywhere from several seconds to minutes depending on the run.

To learn how to use RNG manipulation, see this page.

# Click Speed

Playing the games fast and clicking fast go hand in hand. There are many techniques to click at a decent speed.

• Many players will use two fingers from their free hand to alternate clicking their left mouse button while their other hand still controls the mouse.
• Some players will instead use their index and middle finger from the same hand they're moving the mouse with to alternate clicking the left mouse button faster. This is called butterfly clicking.
• Some players tense up their hand in a certain way to click fast with just one finger, which is referred to as jitter clicking.
• Players in other games have used techniques involving creating friction with their finger and mouse button to click at extremely high speeds, known as drag clicking. No known Nancy Drew runners do this, but it could be useful situationally.

# Tips

Here's some unorganized tips:

• Holding right click to spin is usually the fastest, but in games 16-32, left clicking quickly can be faster.
• In games 1-32?, most clicks are registered from letting go, not pressing down. You can hold down left click on anything, move your mouse, and regardless of what you held down on, the click is registered based on where your cursor is when you let go of left click.
• If you haven't already, check out the Hardware page.