These times are zoast's best (or very close approximations) for each strat in each route, performed during one stream session

Times are in the format of "seconds.frames"

Early PB kills pirates to conserve energy; Normal can get ~10f lower if doing damage boosts off pirates

3.38 assumes autohop off elevator and 3.43 assumes running off elevator; 3.15 is firing the missiles riskily and 3.25 is firing the missiles safe

8.01 is cat climb, 8.31 is Charge shot climb

3.05 or 3.18 or 3.45 or 4.10

3.05 is midair Zeela farm (akin to TAS), 3.18 is easy boosts (no farm), 3.45 is Charge 2-for-1 Zeelas farm (hard), 4.10 is Charge 2-for-1 Zeelas farm (easy)

11.10 is a hard boost after big jump, 11.30 is easy door opener (akin to Any% or Low%)

2.54 is good boost, 3.22 is bad boost

Routes converge with normal only having to go halfway down Red Tower while early PB has to go down from the top

3.04 if enough Supers to blockbust, 4.04 if not - Early PBs usually doesn't have enough to blockbust

Early PB can PB to open the tunnel earlier

Early PB grabs the Missile pack then quickdrops down to tunnel

Early PB can ignore having to open the door on this pass

Early PB can place PB on the center ledge above HJB door to both open the exit tunnel and kill the Sova

Early PB can place PB in midair to halt the earthquake sound effect which elongates transition (second listed number is approximate infohud transition frame amount)

Early PB can PB to skip the Sova maze; 10.18 is bomb spread, 10.46 is no spread

2.55 is a very tough weave strat, 3.30 is normal strat

Routes converge with Normal having to get up to Beta Power Bombs from the bottom while Early PB only has to go halfway up; 2.55 is no farm, 3.46 is farming both

2.32 is best spring, 2.42 is best blockbust (starting with bottom block first)

9.19 is running full speed, 10.24 is starting speedball

2.58 is result of speedball, 4.52 is no speedball

Routes converge with Normal having to break out of lair while Early PB only has to use elevator from the left

101.32 - 105.51*

*Transitions - Although both routes have the same amount of transitions, Early PB has roughly a half-second of worse transitions. Red Brinstar's transitions are simply worse than Kraid's Lair's transitions. Therefore, 0.30 was added to early PB's range to reflect this.

Which route is faster? - It depends on what strategies you are comparing against between routes. The routes are so close in terms of time that it all comes down to that, and which route's strategies you yourself would execute better than the other.

zoast believes he is capable of executing the Early PB route in a manner that it will save him time, so that's why he uses it.

Most people would agree that the fastest, hardest strategies exist on the side of the Normal route, such as the bomb spread in Bubble Mountain and speedball when leaving the Kihunter room in Kraid's Lair during the revisit.

Should I grab PBs early? - Again, that depends on whether or not you, on average, execute the route in a manner that ends up saving time over the normal route. There is barely any difference between the routes.

It's not like choosing whether or not to do ice clip which saves up to 20 seconds depending on execution and strategies. The choice of whether or not to grab PBs early should not make or break your runs in terms of acquiring a personal best.