'Elden Ring' Has Been Beaten In Under Nine Minutes And I Can't Even Anymore

You know, almost exactly one month ago, I wrote the first of many articles about Elden Ring speedruns on this website. The very first Any% run we covered came in at just under 50 minutes, which at the time, was absolutely wild. I mean, it still is - the main story of the game, when you’re playing normally, averages at around 50 hours to beat, so it’s a bit of a difference. 

Since then though, the speedrunning community has improved, characteristically, very fast, and that initial 50 minute record is now looking a lot more like a leisurely little stroll through the Lands Between in comparison to what’s currently being done. Folks, people are now finishing this game in under nine minutes. I don’t even know what to say.

Before we get into it, if you were looking for a place to farm runes fast in Elden Ring, we’ve got the guide for you - take a look at the handy video below.

If you’ve been keeping up with Elden Ring speedruns, the person behind this new record definitely won’t come as a surprise. This mind-blowing eight minute 56 second run comes courtesy of the legendary Distortion2, who’s basically been at the front of the pack when it comes to the Any% category since the game’s release. 

The run uses the “zip glitch”, which was discovered a few weeks back, and basically allows players to skip huge parts of the map by going out of bounds, and forcing the game to warp you to the wrong places. This trick was used to bring run times down under 25 minutes for the first time, but obviously, people have gotten a lot more skilled and efficient in using it since then. 

As you should expect at this point, though, the grind is far from over - Distortion2 has confirmed that he’s aiming to go under seven minutes next, and having seen how much time has already been shaved down since the start of all this, I have absolutely no doubt it’ll happen. Watch this space for the world’s first five minute run - it seems like it’ll only be a matter of time. 

Topics: Elden Ring, Fromsoftware, Bandai Namco