Elden Ring's Most Impressive Record Has Already Been Shattered
"Elden Ring" continues to dominate the conversation in gaming, seemingly captivating anyone who picks it up. This also includes speedrunners, who continue to cut down the amount of time it takes to move through the Lands Between. The first impressive speedrun came in at 2.5 hours and was achieved by niko bellic, but in the week since, at least two more people have put together even more impressive runs.
YouTuber LilAggy finished the game in 59 minutes and 38 seconds, only for Youtuber Distortion2 to beat that record a few hours later, finishing the game in 49 minutes and 29 seconds. For reference, a main story playthrough of "Elden Ring” takes roughly 44 hours to complete (or 72-ish hours if you explore a bit more), according to HowLongToBeat.
To make things even wilder, Distortion2 claimed on Twitter that this was his first attempt to speedrun "Elden Ring," stating that future speedruns of the game would be going under 40 minutes sooner or later. With "Elden Ring" being such a massive and difficult game filled with impossible boss fights, it's impressive that speedrunners have gotten the time so low so quickly.
The director of the game has actually apologized for the game's difficulty level, but seeing these speedrun attempts might make him rethink that apology. If nothing else, this is a good sign that the grand tradition of speedrunning FromSoftware games will continue.
Almost as fast as Bloodborne or Dark Souls
Despite being an open-world game — and a massive one at that — "Elden Ring" seems to still have attracted its own sect of the speedrunning community. Players have maximized their runs through other FromSoftware titles, but the newness of "Elden Ring" makes these latest records even more impressive. For anyone who doesn't know, an "any percent" speedrun allows for players to use any trick that exists within the game itself, including glitches. There are no restrictions on what you can or can't do, as long as it's built within the game itself and as long as you roll credits at the end. With that in mind, it's worth looking at how these "any percent" playthroughs of "Elden Ring" compare to those of some older titles.
For starters, the current record on speedrun.com for "Dark Souls 3," which was set about a month ago, clocks in at 31 minutes and 33 seconds. "Dark Souls 3" came out in 2016, yet its best run only beats the "Elden Ring" record by 20 minutes. The current best "Bloodborne" record is at 21 minutes and 15 seconds, while the record for quickest "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" run comes in at 19 minutes and 45 seconds. As players continue to optimize their paths and find new methods for speedrunning "Elden Ring," it might get even closer in time to runtimes of other FromSoftware titles, despite its massive size.