And once again there is a new speedrun record for Elden Ring. The open-world game offers hundreds of hours of gameplay, yet it can be completed extremely quickly. For the latest record, the player only needed to defeat one boss.
This is the new record time: With 12 minutes and 13 seconds, the player Distortion2 has set the new record for Elden Ring. Just shortly before, he had caused a stir with a record of 12 minutes and 32 seconds. A month ago, the record was still at 37 minutes.
This is a so-called “Any%” run, where anything that the game offers is allowed. Dying and other things are permitted, but usually lead to a restart anyway, since a respawn consumes too much time.
Only Malekith had to be dealt with for the record
This is how he did it:
- As in many other speedruns, Distortion2 started with the Samurai class.
- He also used a so-called “zip” or “meta zip” glitch to skip areas.
- This glitch is complicated to perform, but is crucial for such speedruns. The player used an audio signal to get the timing just right.
- With the right timing and the correct input at the right time, he can essentially pull himself across the map like on a zipline. This allows him to skip entire regions like Limgrave or Liurnia.
- He did this without any upgrades or level-ups.
You can watch this in the video here:
After the tutorial, he uses the zip glitch to reach Liurnia. There he collects the frozen axe, as this weapon is important for the remaining course of the speedrun.
He then glitches further until he lands in Farum Azula. Here he has to fight the only boss of the entire speedrun: Malekith.
He manages this quite easily thanks to routine, despite being a starting character, as the skill of the frozen axe is extremely useful for that. Then he continues with the zipline and, according to his words, the hardest part begins.
Before the gate to the final boss, he glitches again with the zipline through the ground. This costs him a few attempts. When he finally succeeds, he lands in the boss fight with Godfrey. But suddenly the echo of the final boss appears in his inventory and the speedrun is successful.
When you watch the run, you can see how experienced the player is. Many of the steps require a very rapid sequence of key combinations. Timing and perfection are crucial.
“I can’t believe this game has been broken faster than any other Souls game”
This is how the community reacts: Under the video, players express their amazement. Many have just admired an older record that was set only a day earlier and are surprised that this has already been beaten.
Many also compare the speedruns with those from other FromSoftware games and are surprised at how fast it is in Elden Ring, even though the game is many times larger than, for example, Dark Souls 2: “I can’t believe this game has been broken faster than any other Souls game. This is faster than the fastest DS2 speedrun. Good job!” – chasetheman
Other speedrunners also commented on this record and are now aiming for the first sub-10-minute run.
Why are speedruns so popular in the community? On the one hand, speedrunners like to push the mechanics of a game to the limit and see what is possible.
On the other hand, it is of course about being the fastest and setting records. Especially with games from FromSoftware like Dark Souls 1-3, Bloodborne or Sekiro, there is an active speedrunning community with various categories. The appeal here is that these games have a reputation for being particularly challenging.
The most common are the Any% runs, but there are virtually endless possibilities. For instance, there are speedrunners who complete the game without dying.
Some play the games with special controllers like musical instruments or dance mats. Players constantly surpass themselves with new record times. Perhaps there is already a new one while I’m writing this article.
But what do you think of speedruns? Do you find it interesting? Or do you have no interest in it? Do you watch them or maybe even try it yourself?
There were also recent news about Dark Souls: The Steam servers of the Dark Souls games have been offline for months – now players fear that this will remain the case
