A prolific YouTube speedrunner has managed to complete Elden Ring in just over two and a half hours - without dying once.
Niko bellic uploaded their speedrun to YouTube (watch it below), showing their entire hasty playthrough of the game along with the tricks they exploited to rush through Elden Ring in record time (thanks, PC Gamer).
Most of their time is spent careening through the Lands Between, skipping optional fights and non-essential areas, bolting through the required bosses, and rushing past most enemies to take the fastest route through the game. They manage to steer clear of most of Elden Ring’s more cumbersome paths, hitting all the essential parts of the game with next to no downtime.
More impressive is that they appear to complete the game in only two hours and 35 minutes without relying on any glitches, insta-kill bugs, or cheap tactics, dispatching each boss through a masterful understanding of Elden Ring’s core combat system. Add to that the fact niko bellic was able to do it all without dying, and the speedrun looks all the more impressive.
They opt to play as the Vagabond class, occasionally equipping new items to buff their stats. That might say something about which of the Elden Ring classes is best.
You can watch the speedrun below. Be warned, though, niko bellic may have skipped a lot of Elden Ring’s content in their speedy playthrough, but there are still plenty of spoilers in the video in regards to the game's string of mainline quest bosses.
Completing the game in two and a half hours is no mean feat. Game-tracking website HowLongtoBeat currently records Elden Ring’s main story length at around 44 hours, although plenty of players and FromSoftware obsessives have found themselves spending upwards of 70 hours in the game before seeing the credits roll.
Analysis: another speedrun to add to the pile
Niko bellic’s rapid Elden Ring run is the fastest playthrough of the game we’ve seen so far, but they’re unlikely to keep that record for long. FromSoftware’s previous games have served as fertile soil for players to test their speedrunning chops, and we’d expect other lightning-fast playthroughs to crop up in the coming months.
One speedrunner completed Dark Souls 3 in 32 minutes back in 2020, and another finished the original Dark Souls in only 20 minutes. Most Souls speedrunners are able to race through the brutally hard games by ignoring their enemies and avoiding unnecessary bosses.
Of course, there are plenty of other impressive speedrunning records in the wider gaming world. Ocarina of Time has been beaten in under eight minutes, albeit using a panoply of memory glitches that make the game almost unrecognizable, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando was dashed through in a similar time last year, and one player finished the original Portal in a staggering six minutes and 30 seconds.
So long as games have closing credits, players will try their hardest to reach them in record time.
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