How To Finish A Run Fast in (the) Gnorp Apologue

Unlike most incremental games, (the) Gnorp Apologue is finite and even includes a Speedrun Mode that challenges you to finish a run fast.

It takes a lot of micro-managing and knowledge to finish quickly, too. You’ll need to have the best possible setup of buildings and talents to achieve low times.

In this guide, we’ll go over key ways to make your runs of (the) Gnorp Apologue as fast as possible!

How To Do A Fast Run

Talents

Considering that we are aiming to get a good time in Speedrun mode, in particular, we will be going for a 20 Talent Points build. That’s how much you get in that mode, after all.

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Of course, this setup should work just fine in normal mode as well if you have 20 Talent Points there!

This setup focuses on making arrows as good as possible and also further enhances Zybe upgrades. Even better, it pretty much doubles the amount of Zybes you get thanks to Agitated Zybe!

Buildings & Upgrades: Early Game

With your talent setup done, it’s time to get building! We’ll go over which buildings you should get in the order you should get them and mention their key upgrades.

Do note, though, that we won’t be covering when to build more housing.

It’s up to you to manage housing to ensure you have a steady supply of Gnorps but without overspending shards. You can use Auto-Housing too, if you wish.

Anyway, let’s go over the order of buildings and upgrades you should get during the first few minutes of your run!

The Express – Get this ASAP. Get as many Runners as possible in the early game and get as many Capacity upgrades as possible every now and then.

House of Shards – Build it as soon as you can after you build The Express. Use it to build the Rock Analysis Lab and Gnorp Propulsion Lab right away.

Rock Analysis Lab – Zybellium Collector should be your first upgrade, followed by Weakspot Discovery.

Gnorp Propulsion Lab – Get as many Bombers as you can in the early game. You should aim to have around 10 to 20 of them in the first couple minutes of the run. Get Timeshift Impact with your first Zybe.

SIDE NOTE: If you’re looking forward to understanding Zybes even better in the game, check out our guide for that as well.

Archery Range – Get Fire Arrows first, then Ice Arrows once you have enough shards. Only use Fire Arrows for now.

Cocoa Café – Build it as soon as you have set up the previous buildings, but don’t get any Mountaineers for now.

With that basic setup down, you should aim to get the Zybellium Agitator upgrade at the Rock Analysis Lab before the first Compression Event happens.

This upgrade will let you get up to 3 extra Zybes during your run, provided you get Compression Events within 5 minutes of each other!

Mid Game: First Compression Event & Beyond

Once the first Compression Event triggers, grab your second Zybe and use it to upgrade the Timeshift Impact at the Gnorp Propulsion Lab to 2 hits.

Also, get more Bombers, you should aim to get around 30 to 40 around this point. Similarly, upgrade the Speed and Capacity at The Express when possible.

If you keep the pace up, you should have the second Compression Event shortly after the first and get 2 more Zybes.

At this point, build the Gun V. Rock and get about 2-3 Riflegnorps attuned to Ice, and also pick up the Grenade Launcher upgrade when you’re able to.

Then, spend your 2 Zybes to Zybellium Arrows at Archery, which is where the real fun part of the run begins!

You’ll now need to micromanage your Archery, constantly rotating through Zybe, Ice, and Fire arrows. Your goal is to make sure that the effects from all 3 Arrows are active as much as possible.

This will be your main source of damage to the rock, so it’s important to pay attention to it if you want to get a low time for your run.

While managing the Archery, also make sure to keep getting more Bombers. They’re a huge source of damage, as they take good advantage of the arrows’ effects!

Similarly, keep upgrading the Capacity and Speed of runners whenever possible, and don’t forget to click the weakspots on the rock either!

The Remaining Buildings

After you get a couple more Compression Events, it’s time to get the last few buildings and upgrades, as follows.

The Academy – Aim to get 3 Zygnorps here, which will require a total of 3 Zybes.

Change the attunement at The Express and Gnorp Propulsion Lab to Zygnorp once you have the 3 Zygnorps.

Shrine – Build it after you’ve got the Zygnorps ready and get the “Find the Chosen” upgrade once you have 9 Gnorps to spare.

The YX1-AB – Build it as soon as it becomes available to you. Building it will unlock the Pocket Rocket upgrade at the Gnorp Propulsion Lab, which you should get right away.

This will pretty much complete your build, and now your Bombers will do even more damage as they will constantly spawn rockets.

As such, also try to get your Bombers up to 70 at first, but feel free to get even more when you have Gnorps to spare. The more the merrier, honestly!

You can also get the Garden and all of its upgrades at this point, too, of course. They can help speed things up a bit. Similarly, get Accord: Power and Accord: Overdrive at the Shrine.

It’s also extremely important to get the Vulnerability upgrade at The YX1-AB once you get your next Zybe!

But, simply put, now you just have to keep building housing to get Gnorps, and then turning them into Bombers. You should have about 130 Bombers by the time the run is ending.

Do that while micro-managing the arrows at the Archery and you should be close to ending the run in a very short time!

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