There is perhaps no greater challenge for gamers than committing themselves to speedrunning, shaving off precious milliseconds and frames in order to get to the end credits as quickly as possible using all sorts of legitimate strategies. With so many games that newcomers can learn to speedrun, there are opportunities for players to beat personal bests or even set world records. Elden Ring has only been out a few weeks, but people are already finding new ways to complete the game, and it looks like someone has, once again, beaten the previous time.
In a video uploaded to YouTube a couple of days ago, user Hazeblade has, through a number of tactics and most likely hours upon hours of practice, managed to set a milestone in the Elden Ring speedrunning community by beating the game in 24:37. According to the video title, this is the first instance of someone getting to the end of FromSoftware's latest release in less than 25 minutes. Some people commenting on the video have said that they've seen world records being smashed before, and then suddenly this new run gets posted which seems to blow them all out of the water.
Hazeblade goes on to say that they were able to reduce their previous record by several minutes using a technique called "The Zip Glitch," which involves the player guarding and tapping the W key on their keyboard. In any case, 24 minutes is an astonishing time, especially given that it was only recently when Elden Ring was being beaten in just under an hour. Again, that's still a phenomenally quick time to defeat a new game, and it really shows the dedication that goes into a speedrun, especially in a game that's known for its difficulty when playing casually.
While Elden Ring is certainly just as challenging as other FromSoftware releases, the likes of Bloodborne and Dark Souls are considered some of the hardest games ever made. Speedrunning a game at the best of times is no easy feat, but to do so in a brand-new game made by a studio known for releasing punishing titles is worthy of note.
It remains to be seen whether Hazeblade will yet again beat their current record, or whether another player will find a different strategy to shave off even more time. It might even be possible, one day, for someone to do a complete blindfolded speedrun of Elden Ring. That will definitely be an interesting day when someone manages that trick.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.