Yesterday, YouTuber and speedrunner MitChriz beat Elden Ring in just 12 minutes and 32 seconds, setting what appears to be a new record in the “any% unrestricted” speedrunning category for the game.
To pull this off, you probably already guessed that there were some shenanigans and trickery happening in the run. And you would be correct. MitChriz used an Elden Ring speedrunning trick called “zipping” to essentially teleport around the world. This saves a lot of time compared to running everywhere or even using your trusting, double-jumping horse.
Using this trick, MitChriz was able to bypass the Limgrave section of the game and then popped straight over to Liurnia, where they use a now accessible waygate to access a late-game area. Using the zipping trick, they then skip past all but one of the bosses and reach the final boss in record time. Using the zip trick they skip past that boss fight too and finish the game in under 13 minutes.
And here I remember last month when I thought beating Elden Ring in 37 minutes was fast.
You might be wondering: Wait…what is zipping? Well, it’s a speedrunning technique that has become more popular recently among runners focused on setting new record times in the any% unrestricted category for Elden Ring. In this particular speedrunning category, players aren’t required to complete all the steps, get all the runes or do anything else that is usually needed to progress through the game. The main goal in these types of runs is to just reach the end and get to the credits as fast as possible using any method and tricks you can.
And further, in the unrestricted category really wild and tricky methods like zipping—which requires a beefy PC—are allowed.
Before someone gets angry at MitChriz for using glitches or tricks to beat the game, remember that this is just one type of speedrun category that exists for Elden Ring and that other players are out there setting times for runs that involve beating every boss or never taking damage, etc.
I now await someone beating Elden Ring in under 10 minutes.
