Conservative advancement
A continuous-collision method that advances two bodies in safe steps — the distance between them divided by their maximum closing speed — until they just touch.
Rather than guessing or rewinding blindly, the method computes how far the bodies can safely move without passing through each other: never more than the current gap allows, given an upper bound on how fast they are closing. The step repeats, the distance is re-measured (often with GJK), and the series converges on the first moment of contact.
Brian Mirtich described the technique in 1996 and it ships in Bullet's CCD, among others. It finds a correct, conservative impact time and never tunnels, but each iteration costs a distance query, so it is pricier than speculative contacts. Rotation makes it harder, because a point far out on a spinning body moves fast.