Welcome, delicious speedrunners. This is a breakdown of the Townhouse% speedrun in Sunless Sea, a unique and unconventional approach to gameplay focused entirely on retiring your captain as quickly as possible. Credit for this method goes to FailMasta, who developed a reliable route to achieve this ending with speed and efficiency. Whether you’re chasing records or just looking to explore alternate gameplay styles, this guide has you covered.

Townhouse% Rules and Conditions

• Timer Start: The moment the captain’s creation page appears.
• Timer End: When you successfully retire in your elegant townhouse.
• Requirements:
  • Must begin from a new game.
  • No pre-existing advantages (e.g., legacies).

The goal is simple: retire your captain into luxury as fast as possible. It’s not about adventure, survival, or horror—it’s about speed, resource optimization, and a lot of selling.

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Step-by-Step Townhouse% Run

Phase 1: Captain Creation and Setup

1. Start a New Game
   • Load into the captain creation screen. Start your timer now.
2. Go to the Shop
   • Sell your Advice for Captains.
   • Shift + Click to quickly sell 10 units of fuel.
   • Accept the Little Gift pop-up that appears.
3. Sell Remaining Resources
   • Sell all your fuel and supplies.
   • Go to Shipyard and trade away your ship. This earns you 500 Echoes.
4. Abandon Ship
   • In the Desperate Measures section, scroll to the bottom and choose “Slip beneath the waves”.
   • This causes your captain to die, triggering the legacy system.

Phase 2: Legacy Selection

5. Choose Your Heir
   • Pick the Pupil or Salvager (either works, both inherit 50% of your funds).
   • Confirm and proceed.

Note: On slower PCs, this loading screen can become a time sink, but it’s unavoidable.

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Phase 3: The Inheritance Run

6. Create a New Captain
   • Choose Threadneedle Street as your past (or any; it doesn’t matter here).
7. Repeat the Selling Process
   • Sell Advice for Captains.
   • Shift + Click to sell all fuel and supplies.
   • Visit Naval Surplus: sell your deck weapon.
   • Visit Iron & Misery Company: sell your engine.
8. Sell Your Ship Again
   • Go to the Shipyard and trade away your ship.
   • This should bring your Echoes total to 1,000.

Final Step: The Retirement

9. Go to Lodgings
   • Purchase the Elegant Townhouse (1,000 Echo).
   • Re-enter Lodgings.
   • Choose “Consider Retirement from Seafaring Life”.
   • Select “Retire to an Elegant House”.
10. End Timer

• When the retirement screen appears, stop your timer.

Congratulations. You’ve completed a Townhouse% run.

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Tips and Warnings

• Avoid the Cumaean Canal: Occasionally, when abandoning your ship, you may respawn there. If that happens, restart your run—it’s a known run-killer.
• Performance Note: Game load times can significantly affect run times on slower systems.
• Menu Familiarity: Familiarize yourself with shop and lodgings navigation to minimize misclicks and hesitations.

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Final Thoughts

The Townhouse% run is a light-hearted, unconventional speedrun that flips the traditional Sunless Sea gameplay loop on its head. It trades terror and survival for quick wits and economic efficiency. Though the community is small, this niche route is a fantastic way to engage with the game in a creative new way.

Feel free to share your times, improvements, or strategies. The seas are vast—even in retirement.

FailMasta out. Stay efficient. Stay retired.