Setup Overview

Before even starting a run there is a few things to consider, such as which version to use. If running the Steam version of the game there is a variety of versions available, while other PC versions are limited to the version it was last on & NTT, and consoles are confined to just themselves. The following is the list of the main versions used in old/current records, to be more familiar with terminology:

In terms of what is the 'best' version is to run, generally the latest build is going to have the most bugfixes and best performance. That being said meta players will use different versions from across the board, so outside of u98 all of these options are fairly viable.

Along with picking version there is one other major decision which is the method used to obtain a meta mutation set. There are 3 main methods used in order to obtain it, that being:

Between these options the best method will be grillskills as it removes any mutation rng entirely, while dailies remain a viable option even if they vary from day to day. This guide explicitly recommends against methods involving set grinding, they largely fell out of favor because it can take many resets at time just to get a somewhat optimal set, and repeatedly doing this can take a lot of enjoyment out of the game over time. It's best to focus on methods that lets the player focus on one individual run to test their skills, rather than repeated resets to test their patience.

Tools

Any record that is officially submitted needs a video recording, OBS is the popular go-to choice here. Recording is also useful to review deaths and better learn from mistakes. The official record sheet does not currently allow for grillskills, so most runs either just set grind on base NT or use dailies.

The resources page serves as a link hub to any record submission forms, there are more official ones that require video evidence while some ran by members of the community allow for videos or screenshots. Viewing recordings from top players can be a good way to gauge how they are able to survive in deeploop.

The NTT page serves as a useful gateway to understand how to get NTT and the ins and outs of how it works. There are multiple mods that come with it referenced above;

As linked above, the daily page will include any tools that are useful in terms of understanding how set mechanics work in order to get the best set from a given seed that day. This includes the scouting sheet, this is the most useful tool in terms of using dailies.