Elden Ring speedrunner manages to beat the game in under nine minutes

Elden Ring has been out for some time now and many have finished their time in the Lands Between. There are those that have even gone back into the game to try out numerous challenges and builds. And then we have speedruns for the title, which have managed to shave off the vast majority of playtime. In fact, the newest Elden Ring speedrun by Distortion2 comes in at under 9 minutes.

We’ve already seen some seriously impressive times come from Elden Ring speedruns. A previous record came in at under 30 minutes, and several other records have come in since then. However, the newest speedrun for the game is a testament to how the community around these titles can perform wonders.

Here’s how speedrunners have broken Elden Ring

On average, Elden Ring takes somewhere between 30 and 50 hours to complete. This playtime will vary from person to person, but that’s how long you’d generally expect the game to take. Obviously, there’s a big difference between that and the newest record of 8:56. And no matter how good you are at the game, it’s hard to imagine finishing it that quickly. That’s where glitches come in, and like FromSoftware’s other titles, there are quite a few.

The most important glitch to take note of in the Elden Ring Speedrun is zipping. Using this glitch, players are able to ‘zip’ across huge portions of the map. Basically, by blocking with a shield and tapping the W key (or whatever forward movement is bound to), your character will be thrust forward. There are a lot of other factors that go into being able to do this glitch, though. In fact, depending on your hardware, you may not even be able to use this glitch. When executed, the player phases through any walls or obstacles that would otherwise be an issue.

By doing this, speedrunners have been able to skip large portions of the game. The current route has players making their way out of the starting area by zipping to Stormveil Castle. Then, on the cliff overlooking the Liurnia portion of the map, another zip takes players to The Four Belfries. And then, by using a nearby teleporter, you’re taken to Crumbling Farum Azula, which is one of the final areas of the game. After careful navigation and a few more zips, the route eventually takes you to the final room of the game where the player can proceed to the ending.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

It’s so broken, it has its own category

It’s clear to see that this route breaks the game rather severely. In fact, you don’t even need to beat a boss to get to the end. The glitch impacts the run so much that it’s actually only allowed in one official category. Elden Ring’s speedrun.com page lists an Any% category, and an Any% Unrestricted board. Zipping is only allowed in the latter category, because it impacts the game so much. And this doesn’t even seem to be the fastest achievable time either. Distortion2 even believes that a record under 7 minutes is doable.

It’s crazy to see someone finish FromSoftware’s newest game this quickly. Plus there’s the fact that we could even see a time that’s lower than this by an entire minute. There are exciting times ahead for the Elden Ring speedrun community, and it’ll be interesting to see how broken the game can be.