Based on my experience on a second play-through of the game with more knowledge of how to optimize the lab. I am not claiming this is a fully optimized route from EC1-1 -> Dilation and will be open to player feedback if they find certain challenges can be done sooner with different lab setups.
A minimal amount of Eternity farming is included at certain points where progress seemed slow and players are likely to be waiting for the lab to generate enough RP to progress.
I hope you will find this useful. The Revolution Idle EC1-1 -> Dilation: Recommended guide itself is in the thread below. by Angel | ~🅞~ Unity
EC1-1 -> Dilation: (1/5)
Terms:
ET = Eternities; number of Eternities; shown in the game with the symbol Σ (capital Sigma)
EP = Eternity Points; used to buy AP and upgrade the Lab
Lab = Laboratory; unlocked as you progress; six different Labs to spend RP in to increases your power
RP = Research Points; spend in the six Labs when unlocked; you will only use 4 of them; only 2 later
AP = Animal Points; bought with EP/IP/Score; used to buy Animals
IC = Infinity Challenge; you want these as low as possible for bonuses; under 1sec total by Dilation
EC = Eternity Challenge; EC5-3 means Eternity Challenge 5, Difficult 3/5; give rewards on first completion of each difficulty; some rewards are VERY strong at this stage
SN = Supernova; unlocked as you progress; gives bonuses; does not reset all your progress, only starts a new Eternity; get as many as you can, when you can (<15mins per Supernova)
(1:2) = Ratio for spending your RP between lab 5 (Gen Power Exp.) & Lab 6 (Common Exp.);
1:2 means for every 1 point you put into lab 5, put 2 points into lab 6;
For 1:2 you can divide your total RP by 3 and put that many in lab 5 and the rest in lab 6.
(53:117) = same as above, but exactly how I spent my points between lab 5:lab 6 when I had that many RP;
if you have more points, you can try and keep the same ratio; if in doubt, put them into the lab you have more points in.
Revolution Idle EC1-1 -> Dilation: Recommended
// Main Guide Begins Here!
EC1-1 17-20 ET; animals [1;1], [1;2], [1;3] & [2;3] (for lap speed); Total AP = 8
EC1-2 32+ ET (Break Eternity); animals as above + [2;4] Jerboa (desperately needed lap speed); Total AP = 10+
EC2-1 Straight after EC1-2
— EC1-1 -> Dilation: continued (2/5)
Challenges Milestone 1: keep Infinity challenges on Eternity; makes ET quicker;
try to lower challenge times at the end of an Eternity;
for fastest times: leave infinity broken, auto-promote/prestige off, auto-infinity = ON [1, 0.005]
EC2-2 ~53 ET; animals as above + [2;5] Chinchilla; Total AP = 12+
EC3-1 Straight after EC2-2
Challenges Milestone 2: Prestige resets nothing; change auto-prestige to [0.00, 1.01, 0.00]
Farm ET/AP; buy animals up to [4;3] Sheep in pinned guide; Total AP = 30+; 13 max animals; ~150 ET
Animals Milestone 4: Promotion resets nothing; change all auto-promotions to [+1 Lv., 0s]
Slowdown/auto-slowdown: very useful for progress; slowdown is a very strong bonus; early on it is quite difficult to do correctly; see below for advice
Manual slowdown: try 1 less slowdown than your maximum slowdown; when ready to Eternate you can disable auto-promote/prestige/infinity and go to maximum slowdown for big gains; might make a more detailed guide on how to manage slowdown if requested;
Auto-slowdown: Turn ON; try 500 to start with; if this is slowing down too much, you can try increasing it to 800; you can also try lowering this every so often: 800 -> 500 -> 350 -> 200 -> 100 -> 50 -> 20 -> 10
Good time to lower IC times with updated automation; do so at the end of an Eternity
Score build lab setup; 1:2 ratio between Lab 5 (Gen Power Exp.) and Lab 6 (Common Exp.)
EC1-3 Should be quick (29 RP, 9:20)
EC1-4 Straight after EC1-3
EC3-2 Straight after EC1-4
Challenges Milestone 3: Go Supernova! Gives good bonuses; doesn’t reset progress; only starts a new Eternity
Score build: Supernova 1 (SN1) 
IP/EP build; farm quick Eternities for EP for Lab/AP; buy IP/score AP at end of an Eternity
— EC1-1 -> Dilation: continued (3/5)
Buy animals up to [4;4] Cow; very good EP multiplier; Total AP = 56+; 20+ max animals;
Main loop of this part of the game:
1) IP/EP build: farm ET; EP for AP/Lab; IP for AP (at end of Eternity)
2) Score build: Score for AP; Supernovas 15mins max to push for Supernova
3) Score build: Try challenges, 15mins max to push for a challenge (unless really, really close)
Most challenges will be near instant to complete when you have enough power for them.
Score build: SN2 -> EC2-3 -> EC4-1
Challenges Milestone 4 + Animals Milestone 5: with both of these you no longer need to Infinity to gain IP;
auto-infinity & IP adjuster = OFF; only need to turn on for lowering Infinity Challenge times
Since you no longer reset for promote/prestige/infinity: set auto slowdown to 10;
Slowdown was causing problems when you needed to reset; now you don’t reset!
Good time to lower fastest infinity and Infinity Challenges!
Score build: EC1-5 -> EC 3-3 -> SN3 -> EC3-4 -> EC4-2 (all RP in lab 6) -> EC3-5 -> SN4 (buy score AP)
Fast ET farm if below 1.1k ET; all RP in Lab 1 [IP Gain] avg. ET 250ms: 5 mins ET farm -> 1.1k ET
IP/EP build: farm for EP/AP/RP; quick (<5sec) eternities are still best
With Total AP = 94+, all animals in IP/EP build up to [6;2] Giraffe; ~100 RP
ET farm (avg. 217ms): all RP in Lab 1 [IP Gain]; 5mins -> 2.5k ET;
Score build: SN5 (~123 RP; 1:2 lab) -> EC5-1 (127RP; 1:2 lab; <5 mins)
IP/EP build: farm EP/AP/RP; ~2e19 EP/s
ET farm (avg. 200ms): all RP in Lab 1 [IP Gain]; 5 mins -> 4k ET
IP/EP build: farm EP/AP/RP; ~6e19 EP/s
Score build: SN6 -> EC2-4 (151 RP; all RP in lab 6] -> SN7 (buy score AP)
IP/EP build: Total AP = 132; All animals in IP/EP build up to [6;4] Hippo; 5e22 EP/s -> 1.5e23 EP/s
— EC1-1 -> Dilation: continued (4/5)
Score build: EC5-2 (170 RP; 53:117; <5 mins); then do an Eternity, buy AP with score up to e130k
Score build: EC4-3 (177 RP; 20:157) -> SN8 (1:2)
IP/EP build: farm EP/AP/RP; 4e24 EP/s -> 1.5 e25 EP/s
Score build: EC2-5 (189 RP; 1:3) -> SN9 (192 RP; 40:152) -> EC5-3 (194 RP; 50;134)
Score build: EC6-1 (195 RP; all RP lab 6) -> EC4-4 (199RP; 20:179; ~3mins) -> SN10 (203 RP; 61:142)
IP/EP build: farm EP/AP/RP; 4.2e28 EP/s
ET farm (133ms avg.): 6-7mins -> 6969 ET :Yees:
IP/EP build; farm EP/AP/RP; 2.3e29 EP/s
Score build: SN11 (218 RP; 48:170) -> SN12 (225 RP; 55:170)
IP/EP build: Total AP = 178+; animals in IP/EP build up to [6;6] Elephant; quick IP/EP runs; 1e32 EP/s
Score build: SN13 (244 RP; 1:2) -> EC4-5 (252 RP; all RP in lab 6) -> SN14 (253 RP; 1:2)
IP/EP build: 1.5e35 EP/s -> Total AP = 204+; animals in IP/EP build up to [6;7] Anteater -> 7e35 EP/s
ET farm (100ms avg.): 5 mins -> 10k ET (271 RP; all in Lab 1 [IP Gain])
Score build: Total AP = 204+; All animals in Score build + [5;3] Toad & [5;5] Chameleon;
Score build: EC6-2 (272 RP; 60:212) -> SN15 (273 RP; 80:193; buy AP with score before going SN)
Score build: Total AP = 220+; buy [5;4] Turtle
Score build: SN16 (273 RP; 80:193) -> EC5-4 (282 RP; 190:92) -> SN17 (290 RP; 120:170) -> SN18 (buy AP)
IP/EP build: Total AP = 232+; all animals in IP/EP build up to [6;8] Koala -> farm EP: 8e40 EP/s (320 RP)
— EC1-1 -> Dilation: continued (5/5)
Score build: As you get more AP from SN and have completed the Score build;
buy animals [5;3] down to [5;6] -> animals [6;2] down to [6;9] & [5;1] -> buy cheapest animals
Score build: SN19 (320 RP; 145:175) -> SN20 (327 RP; 147:180) -> EC7-1 (RP doesn’t matter; <1 min)
SN21 (338 RP; 147:189) -> EC6-3 (347 RP; 147:200) -> SN22 (350 RP; 150:200)
EC5-5 (350 RP; 150:200) -> SN23 (420 RP; 190:230) -> SN24 (460 RP; 210:250)
EC6-4 (477 RP; 215:262) -> SN25 (485 RP; 215:270) -> SN26 (485 RP; 215:270) -> EC7-2
No more switching builds; score build only and you will continue to buy animals from IP/EP build
Farm EP/AP/RP if you get stuck on any of the next challenges/SN
EC8-1 -> EC8-2 -> SN27 -> SN28 -> EC6-5;
EC9-1 (500 RP; all RP in lab 6) -> EC9-2 (500+ RP; all RP in lab 6);
SN29 -> SN30 -> SN31 -> SN32;
EC8-3 (2:1 lab5:lab6) -> EC7-3 -> EC8-4 (2:1 lab5:lab6) -> EC8-5 (~700 RP; 2:1)
Total AP = 1,424+; should have all animals except Nu!
SN33 (740 RP; 1:2) -> EC9-3 (777RP; all RP in lab 6) -> EC7-4 -> SN34
You should now be able to get enough AP to buy Nu!
Congratulations! You bought the whole Zoo!
Your prize? You have unlocked Dilation… time seems to move slowly here…
Respec lab: all RP in Lab 6 -> “Go Dilation”