Elden Ring Finished In Less Than 9 Minutes In Must-See Speedrun

In another iteration of amazing "Elden Ring" speedruns, YouTuber and Twitch streamer Distortion2 managed to set what seems to be a world record by beating the game in less than 9 minutes. The run was streamed live and then uploaded onto YouTube. Considering that "Elden Ring" takes many people over one hundred hours to beat, this is impressive — but unsurprisingly, the run is unlike traditional playthroughs in that it relies on glitches to complete the game.

Distortion2's official time was 8 minutes and 56 seconds, which is an improvement over his previous attempts at this particular speedrun. The streamer has been lowering the time it takes him to beat the game day after day after first managing to complete "Elden Ring" in less than 30 minutes on March 14. That's a tremendous amount of time shaved off in less than a month of attempts.

Although the way the game is beat here requires using glitches and exploits, that doesn't mean that Distortion2 just got lucky. Executing this strategy correctly requires meticulous timing, which is exactly what the streamer seems to have achieved in this particular attempt. In order to (quite literally) breeze through the game, Distortion2 used a bug known as the "zip glitch."

The zip glitch is a bug in "Elden Ring" that lets users teleport from place to place. Executing it is not easy — it requires using the right combination of guarding and walking with perfect timing in order to achieve the zip at all. As a YouTube commenter explains, these zips are done manually and are made easier by using a lower resolution, but they also rely on hardware, meaning that not every player will be able to try them out in the first place.

In the world of "Elden Ring" and "Dark Souls" speedruns, many variations exist. The run Distortion2 had been practicing and completing is referred to as the "any % unrestricted speedrun," which implies that the game just has to be beaten — it doesn't matter how. That's why, throughout the run, the YouTuber relies on zips, various other glitches, and even reloading the game to make the timer. He doesn't actually fight any of the bosses required to beat the game, although he does engage in combat with some, and even dies to one. This brings him to victory and his sub-9-minute timer.

The speedrun makes for an intriguing watch; even more so when you consider just how much prep and practice must have gone into hitting that perfect time. "Elden Ring" content creators just continue to prove how much they're willing to hammer down the strategy until they hit their goals. Just recently, a different speedrunner completed the game without taking any damage whatsoever, a feat near-impossible to most of us who continue to die many times over to Malenia and other similar bosses.