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Elden Ring speedrun record drops below nine minutes

The Elden Ring speedrun record has dropped below the nine minute mark, setting a new milestone for what is achievable in the Any% category

Elden Ring speedrun record drops below nine minutes

The development of Elden Ring’s Any% speedrun has been a fascinating watch. As the finest game-breaking minds FromSoftware’s community has to offer have gradually went through Elden Ring’s boss order and only the bosses you actually have to kill in order to beat the game, we have now arrived at a point where the Elden Ring speedrun record is not only under nine minutes, but it has been set without killing a single enemy.

Once again, speed demon ‘Distortion2’ has returned with a record-setting Elden Ring speedrun, blazing his way through the game in just eight minutes and fifty-six seconds – a world-first sub-nine minute attempt.

But what’s new in the current run that has allowed Distortion2 to cleave through Elden Ring like a hot knife through butter? Well, over the past several weeks a new mechanic for the run called ‘zipping’ was found, and subsequently exploited in every possible way. As described by ‘Sketchy’, a commenter on Distortion2’s video, “a zip is performed by guarding and then walking at a specific time afterward for a specific number of frames.” When performed correctly, your Tarnished will be catapulted in the direction they’re facing.

You can check out Distortion2’s record-breaking run below. As you’ll see, the run in its current state is wild to say the least. If you want to know more about what’s actually happening, then definitely click through and read Sketchy’s comment – which is pinned at the time of writing – in full.

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With further optimisations to the current Elden Ring speedrun route still being made, it wouldn’t surprise us to see the record dip below eight minutes over the coming days.