Elden Ring speedrun record is now under 9 minutes

One month ago, Elden Ring speedrunners broke the 30-minute mark for finishing FromSoftware’s vast open-world adventure. That was impressive. Now, thanks to fancy glitches and honed techniques, runs are below 9 minutes. Ridiculous. come see

That’s runner “Distortion2”, who has been cutting times massively since breaking the 30-minute mark. The run gets daft from the start, dropping from the starting area down through the world and into Stormveil Castle. A series of glitches rocket the Tarnished across the world to hit Crumbling Farum Azula before even the two-minute mark. And from there, glitches skip actually fighting bosses before a short sprint to the end at 8:57.

I’m being a bit vague to avoid spoilers so watch the video if you want. I suppose it does show so little of actual Elden Ring that you could watch it and still not understanding anything, but you would see end-game areas and bosses so maybe best not?

I am impressed by the finesse and weirdness of runs which glitch the hell out of everything, and would like to see a daft run like this on Summer Games Done Quick or such with full explain-o-commentary. But I would also be interested in a glitchless run (or less gitchful, at least) that speeds to the end with efficient route planning, careful builds, and sheer mastery of violence.

The unofficial speedrun leaderboards at Speedrun.com do track ‘All Remembrances’ category, where players need to get every major boss soul—and do seem to actually fight some (though many glitches are still in play). That takes a lot longer, obvs, with the current listed record being 92 minutes.