Elden Ring player already achieves a sub-one hour speedrun [Update]

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-03-10 10:56 JST)

[Update 2022/03/11 16:30 JST]
Elden Ring speedrun record is now under 40 minutes using the Wrong Warp glitch.

[Update 2022/03/10 20:51 JST]
Renowned speedrunner Distortion uploaded a sub-50 minute run video on YouTube.

[Original Text 2022/03/10 15:22 JST]
Elden Ring has been available for roughly 2 weeks, and one player has already managed a speedrun of the game in under 1 hour based on in-game time. The speedrun also makes use of glitches.

Please be aware that this article contains spoilers and gameplay footage of Elden Ring.

Elden Ring is the latest action RPG from FromSoftware that just released on February 25. The game takes place in a massive open field with speedrunners and fans alike wondering just how they should traverse it to clear the game as quickly as possible.

On March 9, a speedrunner that goes by LilAggy managed a shockingly fast run of Elden Ring, defeating the final boss in 59 minutes and 38 seconds. This is based on in-game time which doesn’t take into account loading times and such. But for a game that’s being lauded as having seemingly no end in sight after dozens of hours of play, it’s an extremely fast time.

Furthermore, LilAggy is a top-class speedrunner with records in games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and others. Below is a video of LilAggy’s run which they call the first sub-one hour run of Elden Ring. Please be warned that the video contains major spoilers such as the last boss.

By watching the video, you can see a very precise route being used to achieve such a fast time. In Elden Ring, there are Teleporters on the map that act as warp points for players. By having a firm understanding of these teleporters and their locations, as well as utilizing glitches, LilAggy was able to optimize their movement through the world.

There are many cases where a Teleporter will send players to areas from later in the game. A normal player might see themselves surrounded by powerful enemies and be scared, but for speedrunners, these are much appreciated shortcuts. LilAggy also made use of saving and reloading to go deeper into areas, enemies that teleport players to specific areas, and other techniques to their full extent in order to condense their journey.

Another thing to note is combat. Bosses in Elden Ring are tough, and to complete the game, combat is unavoidable. It looks like for some bosses LilAggy used a glitch that stops them from moving. But for most bosses, LilAggy challenged them straight up. As for their tactics, they went with a combination of focusing on the Vigor stat and using the Hoarfrost Stomp skill. With the runes obtained from boss battles, LilAggy mostly allocated them to Vigor while putting some into Mind. By ensuring they stay alive and by using Hoarfrost Stomp, a skill considered powerful by many players, LilAggy was able to wrestle victory out of the hands of Elden Ring’s fearsome bosses.

LilAggy also chose the Samurai class at the start of the game. This is speculation on my (the author of the original article) part, but this is possibly to make use of the Hemorrhage (Bleed) status effect the Samurai’s katana can inflict early in the game. This status effect does damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s HP. It’s probably an effective weapon to use early on while your strength is low before acquiring Hoarfrost Stomp.

This run also contains some mistakes and deaths during boss battles. After more practice and fine tuning of the route, it’s likely we will see even faster times emerge. The speedrunning aggregate site Speedrun.com plans to open the Elden Ring category on March 18. We’re looking forward to seeing what sorts of routes and tactics these speedy Tarnished cook up.