I personally try to automatize as much as possible. Like instead of using burp I usually start with curl for simple ones and go for requests@python immediately with more complex ones. When I have a sketch I usually write a script in python. Like with Kryptos it would all have been possible without any coding involved but I believe it was worth the extra ~20 mins writing an interactive shell for the enum part that must’ve spared me hours.
I don’t think it’s necessarily always possible or feasible to try creating a shortcut but usually you can at least code smaller parts that make it that much quicker
Alamot 's scripts are amazing, hands down but clearly made /after/ he pwnd the boxes for demonstration purposes with knowledge you don’t necessarily have during the proccess.