Potato Please Speedrun: Any% Route and Timing

Potato Please does not ship with an official speedrun timer, so an Any% run is timed externally from the first controllable frame to the final train choice. The route is a story completion: skip optional achievements, buy only throughput, and treat every minute at the cutting board as a minute you could have spent fixing the line.

This is a route guide, not a record claim. The game is new, the leaderboard has already seen cheating reports, and the fastest verified time will change. What does not change is the structure: the run is won by buying the first Auto Peel Machine early and keeping it fed.

What counts as Any% in Potato Please?

Any% means reaching an ending as fast as possible without completing every achievement. You still have to finish the 60,000-potato quota because the train is locked behind it. You do not have to unlock all 20 achievements, feed the dog, or see every ending.

The run ends when you confirm a train route and the ending triggers. If you are timing on a completed save, the timer starts when you load the save; if you are timing a fresh run, it starts at the first controllable frame.

There is no in-game timer, so use an external split timer. Record the video and keep the timer visible. A run without video is hard to verify, especially because the leaderboard has had cheating reports.

What is the fastest route?

The route has five phases:

The opening is the most optimized part of the run. Buy Carry Capacity before anything else, then the Steel Knife. Do not buy the Wheelbarrow until you have more sacks than you can carry.

The manual phase is a money check. You need $12 for the Kitchen Table and $20 for the Crank. The table is worth it because it reduces reach time; the Crank is a bridge to the Auto.

The first machine phase is the run's pivot. The $280 Auto Peel Machine is the largest single time save in the game. If you are still peeling by hand after the first hour, the run is already slow.

Where does a speedrun lose time?

Most lost time is not peeling. It is walking, waiting, and fixing blockages.

• Walking to the sack instead of keeping it beside the board.
• Waiting for a payment instead of processing the potatoes already on the table.
• Buying the Wheelbarrow before there are enough sacks to justify it.
• Buying the Claw Crane before the peelers are fed.
• Ignoring a blocked output lane while the machine runs.
• Repiling manually when the crane autopilot can do it.

The output lane is the silent killer. A machine that peels but cannot deliver looks busy and produces nothing. Check the chute every few minutes, especially after adding a second machine.

Which purchases matter most?

The speedrun shopping list is shorter than the completion list:

1. Carry Capacity.
2. Steel Knife.
3. Kitchen Table.
4. Crank Peel Machine.
5. Auto Peel Machine.
6. Sack Gantry.
7. Second Auto Peel Machine.
8. Overclock, only if the barrels are busy.

Everything else is optional. The Wheelbarrow is a time save only when the carry route is long. The Cableway is a mid-game route upgrade, not an opening purchase. The Claw Crane is a pile tool, not a peeler.

Overclock at $1,400 is a judgment call. If the run has a stable input and every barrel is busy, it doubles output. If the line is still hand-fed, the money is better spent on another machine.

How do you time the run?

Use an external timer with splits for:

• First payment.
• Kitchen Table purchase.
• First Auto Peel Machine.
• Sack Gantry.
• Second machine.
• 30,000 potatoes.
• 60,000 potatoes.
• Train choice.

The splits make it easy to compare runs and see where a route change helped. A fast opening with a slow quota usually means the line was underbuilt. A slow opening with a fast quota means the route spent too much on manual upgrades.

Do not compare your time to a video that uses a different patch. The 1.0.1 hotfix changed crane behaviour, hopper behaviour, and several input bugs. A pre-patch run is not directly comparable.

Is the leaderboard trustworthy?

The Steam discussions have threads about leaderboard cheaters. Treat any posted time as unverified until it has video and a patch version. The game has no built-in anti-cheat for external timing, so the community has to verify runs manually.

For your own runs, the useful comparison is your previous split, not the top of the leaderboard. A clean run with a stable line is a better baseline than a lucky run with a bug. Once the route reaches the quota, the quota checklist → covers the golden key and the final train choice.

FAQ

Is there an official speedrun timer?

No. Time the run externally and record the video.

What is the Any% route?

Finish the story as fast as possible: Carry Capacity, Steel Knife, Kitchen Table, Crank, Auto Peel Machine, Gantry, second machine, then the 60,000 quota and one train ending.

Can you skip the 60,000 quota?

No. The train is locked behind the final order. You can skip achievements and side content, not the quota.

Does Hard mode help a speedrun?

No. Hard mode halves payment and removes peeling tolerance, so it makes the run slower. Run Standard for Any%.

Official source: Potato Please on Steam ↗

Community source: 100% completion playthrough, 3h36m ↗

The 1.0.1 hotfix notes ↗ are required reading for patch differences. The Steam discussions hub ↗ has the current leaderboard cheating threads.