This guide is baded upon the speedrun uploaded by Walden Perry. I just made a description in text of their strategy. Big thanks and respect to them for the amazing 16 minute speedrun!

Note that the list below is a suggested order. Things like looking for the blueprint shape (CCCR, Lv 12) and marking its position can be done at other points of the run.

Before starting your real run, I strongly suggest doing one trial run without bothering about the time, just to learn how to build the different arrays efficiently -- explained in the next section -- and get familiar with the general order of things.

If one of the items on the list is unclear, I suggest looking at the original speedrun on which this guide is based for the specific actions required. This guide is in text form because it is a lot easier to keep track of where you are compared to when following a video.

The shapes required for the first 12 levels are shown below.

1. Add 8 extractors on Circles and connect them to the hub.
   
2. Do the same for Squares.
   
3. Add 4 adjacent to the hub where the circles enter.
   
4. Do the same for Squares.
   
5. Remove all stuff to do with circles. This can be done fast by CTRL dragging.
   
6. Get 1 full belt (Full belt is 4 extractors with 3 balancers) of circles.
   
7. Add 6 balancers spaced out by 1 along the full circle belt, add 1 upwards facing belt at each balancer (hold CTRL to keep the direction while dragging your mouse).
   
8. Add 6 cutters above this, with 1-3 rotators at exits of each (if facing upwards, 1 rot. at left exit, 3 at right exit).
   
9. Combine 3 cutters' output with 3 balancers, do this twice.
   
10. 1 output is directly for hub (facing upward half circle)
    
11. Get closest star node and get full belt to hub (used in upgrades as well)

1. Get full belt of circles and reds and build a paint array to get the Lv 7 red circles.
   
2. Do the same for Blue squares. EXTRA: Add 6 cutters - With 2-0 rotators - and combine this output per 3 cutters for 2 full belts going to the hub.
   
3. Get full belt of Lv 12 blueprint shapes CCCR to the paint array of the blue squares.
   
4. Build giant Color mixing array. Start with 8 columns of balancers, with 2 empty spaces between them. Make sure it is high enough, 17 high is needed.
   
5. Then start with building two 2-color mixers. The white mixing part can be left for later.
   
6. Use first 2-color mixer to make cyan, first make a painter array to make the cyan stars and bring them to the hub before starting the second 2-color mixer.
   
7. Second 2-color mixer is for purple, bring the purple to the painter array for the red circles.
   
8. Now build the white paint mixer array. Build another painter array to make white circles. (get full circle belt from circle node close to hub.
   
9. Bp shape CCCR replaces the squares in the blue painter array, remove the cutting part of the output.

1. Build stack array for blue CCCR (Lv 12) & white circle shapes.
   
2. Build special stack array for Lv 11 shape.

Order of placing things:

1. Balancers
   
2. Belts, use SHIFT to build long stretches of belt easily, use (hold) CTRL to place the curved belts easily, since CTRL makes the belts keep the same rotation.
   
3. Place underground entrances for the paint, this can be done efficiently by just dragging, you will create unused underground belts, but that is no problem.
   
4. Place underground exits by holding CTRL (no misplacing here though, other space is reserved for the painters)
   
5. Place painters (easy done by dragging)
   
6. The other belts can be done out of order, just hold CTRL for the corner pieces.

With the columns in place, place the underground belts first, then the paint mixers, and end with the loose belts. Holding CTRL and dragging lets you place the single output belts fast, you will place more belts than needed, but the time saved is worth it.

Same method of building. Start with 2 rows of balancers, and remove the extra ones. Lv 12 shape: remove every other balancer. Lv 11 shape: Every 4th balancer. Then place underground belts, you can drag the entrances again to be faster. Then place leftover belts holding ctrl.

Additionally, the rotators, when green circles at bottom: 1 0 for greens, 0 1 for cyan stars. CW rotators should look like: 100110011001...
Fill the gaps afterwards with anti-CW rotators.
Loop the first output of the green cutter around before placing the stackers.