This puzzle is presented as charts of video game speedrunning categories. (Each graph corresponds to a single video game.) As clued by the title and flavortext ("Run", "not just any", "extended"), we should be looking at both normal and category "extensions," which often contain joke categories.
On each graph, the x-axis represents either a number in the category or the category name, alphabetized, while the y-axis represents the current #1 record time (in minutes) on www.speedrun.com (as of January 2023). An optional accompanying pixel art sprite clues the category name, such as a picture of a carp for "Magikarp%", which we could use to search for the categories.
We can identify the missing category for each game, which is labeled with a number in parentheses, by using the time. The games are helpfully given in alphabetical order by name. (See Appendix for a table of all game categories.)
Each of the missing categories can be attributed to an emoji at the bottom, just like the original pixel art sprites. Using the order of the emojis gives us an ordering for the categories. Indexing the number into the category (ignoring numbers, in the case of 100% Wonderful), we extract the clue phrase SPEEDRUN USER RUNNING MATE.
| Game | Category | Emoji | Index | Extract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luigi's Mansion | Sidestep | 👣 | 5 | S |
| Roblox: Speed Run 4 | P2W% | 💰 | 1 | P |
| Spelunky 2 | Sunken City% | 🏙️ | 5 | E |
| Celeste | All Hearts | ❤️ | 5 | E |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 420 Pencils | ✏️ | 1 | D |
| Cookie Clicker | IRL Cookie Baking | 🍳 | 2 | R |
| Untitled Goose Game | Bust% | 👤 | 2 | U |
| Super Metroid | Club Nintendo% | ♣️ | 5 | N |
| Terraria | Platinum Coin | 🪙 | 7 | U |
| A Hat In Time | DoubleSunglasses% | 🕶️ | 7 | S |
| Half-Life | Relay% | 🏃 | 2 | E |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Retro Tracks | 🛤️ | 1 | R |
| Mirror's Edge | Streets | 🛣️ | 3 | R |
| Super Meat Boy | Unlock Headcrab | 🦀 | 1 | U |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Nipple% | 🍼 | 1 | N |
| Breath of the Wild | Dank% | 🚬 | 3 | N |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | Arbalistic | 🏹 | 6 | I |
| Pokémon Snap | 100% Wonderful | 💯 | 3 | N |
| Undertale | Lesser Dog | 🐕 | 9 | G |
| Pringles | Scream into the Void | 😱 | 6 | M |
| Cuphead | Hater% | 🤬 | 2 | A |
| Hollow Knight | Cartographer | 🗺️ | 4 | T |
| Getting Over It | Space% | 🌌 | 5 | E |
This suggests that we find a particular user: https://www.speedrun.com/user/runningmate. Looking up their profile, we find a link to a YouTube video of a compilation of categories in their favorite game. This compilation is in fact a videographic do-it-again step! Each clip represents a category (sometimes with an image redacted), with its enumeration and time given in the video description.
These categories all come from the game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. Looking up the final missing category by the time at the end of the video gives us Pizza% and thus our final answer, PIZZA.
| Category | Description of Video in Montage | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Collectible% | Breath of the Wild (finding a Korok seed) | 9:03 |
| Daycare% | Pokémon (putting Pokemon in daycare) | 1:35 |
| Flag% | Celeste (climbing the summit) | 1:40 |
| Genocide% | Undertale (the genocide run) | 28:35 |
| Golf% | Wii Sports (golf) | 1:52 |
| All Jumpscares | Amnesia: The Dark Descent (opening a cabinet for with jumpscare) | 43:27 |
| Map% | Hollow Knight (finding the cartographer) | 1:43 |
This puzzle was inspired by ridiculous category names like "Butter Dog Dog Wit Da Butter On Him%", as well as other teammates' speedrunning puzzle written in an internal potluck a few years back. The original idea involved actually running a number of games with encoded data and uploading them to the actual speedrun.com website, but unfortunately this was abandoned due to lack of time.
Below is a table of games, category names, and sprites, with the missing category highlighted.
| Game | Category Name | Sprite |
|---|---|---|
| A Hat In Time | BurgerOnTheRight% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| A Hat In Time | Crab% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| A Hat In Time | DoubleSunglasses% | |
| A Hat In Time | FakeAward% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| A Hat In Time | IHaveNoFuckingWater% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Breath of the Wild | Become Monke% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Breath of the Wild | Bread% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Breath of the Wild | Butter Dog Dog Wit Da Butter On Him% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Breath of the Wild | Dank% | |
| Breath of the Wild | Marriage% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Breath of the Wild | Rake in Lake | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Celeste | All Cassettes | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Celeste | All Hearts | |
| Celeste | All Red Berries | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Celeste | 100% | |
| Celeste | 202 Berries | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cookie Clicker | 1 Heavenly Chip | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cookie Clicker | IRL Cookie Baking | |
| Cookie Clicker | Neverclick | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cookie Clicker | 70-1 Grandmas | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cuphead | One Gun | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cuphead | Army% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Cuphead | Hater% | |
| Cuphead | Marathon | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Getting Over It | Backwards | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Getting Over It | Golden Snake | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Getting Over It | Sexy% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Getting Over It | Space% | |
| Half-Life | Crowbar% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Half-Life | +duck% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Half-Life | ESA% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Half-Life | Relay% | |
| Hollow Knight | Cartographer | |
| Hollow Knight | Elderbug% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Hollow Knight | Ghostbusters | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Hollow Knight | Grubsong% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Hollow Knight | Mr. Mushroom Ending | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Luigi's Mansion | 15 Boos | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Luigi's Mansion | Dead% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Luigi's Mansion | Sidestep | |
| Luigi's Mansion | All Boos | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Blue Yourself | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | 48 Tracks | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Retro Tracks | |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Shine Thief | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | All Wood Logs | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | Arbalistic | |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | Half% | |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | Pride% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | Stack of Lime Wool | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mirror's Edge | Negative% | |
| Mirror's Edge | Bike% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mirror's Edge | Billboard% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mirror's Edge | 69 Stars | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Mirror's Edge | Streets% | |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 10 Pencils | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 69 Pencils | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 420 Pencils | |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 1000 Pencils | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pencil Sharpening Simulator | Drill, 1500 Pencils | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pokemon Snap | Jynx% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pokemon Snap | Magikarp% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pokemon Snap | 250k points | |
| Pokemon Snap | 300k points | |
| Pokemon Snap | 100% Wonderful | |
| Pringles | All A's | |
| Pringles | B Emoji Percent | |
| Pringles | Lays Stax% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Pringles | Scream into the Void | |
| Roblox: Speed Run 4 | Gears% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Roblox: Speed Run 4 | P2W% | |
| Roblox: Speed Run 4 | Tree% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Roblox: Speed Run 4 | Zombie% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Spelunky 2 | Eggplant% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Spelunky 2 | No Gold | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Spelunky 2 | No Teleporter Any% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Spelunky 2 | Sunken City% | |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Dark Side | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Festival% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Nipple% | |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Talkatoo% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Mario Odyssey | World Peace | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Meat Boy | Sprintless% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Meat Boy | Triathlon | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Meat Boy | Tofu% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Meat Boy | Unlock Headcrab | |
| Super Meat Boy | 106% | |
| Super Metroid | Beamless | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Metroid | Blindfolded | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Metroid | Club Nintendo% | |
| Super Metroid | 69% | |
| Super Metroid | Nintendo Power% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Super Metroid | North Korea% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Terraria | Dungeon Guardian | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Terraria | Frost Moon | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Terraria | Platinum Coin | |
| Terraria | Pumpkin Moon | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Terraria | Torch God | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Undertale | Crash% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Undertale | Duck% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Undertale | Lesser Dog | |
| Undertale | OST% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Undertale | Temmie College | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Untitled Goose Game | Bust% | |
| Untitled Goose Game | Cabber% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Untitled Goose Game | Clothes% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Untitled Goose Game | Mail% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Untitled Goose Game | Vegan% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |
| Untitled Goose Game | Wet% | Warning: if you see this message, please wait for this image to load before printing again. |