Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl launched just under two weeks ago, and while some players may only now be working their way through the game, speedrunners have been hard at work.
In fact, Pokémon YouTuber Werster set a new any percent world record by completing the game in 23 minutes, 13 seconds.
As you may have assumed from the impossibly fast time, the playthrough took advantage of a variety of different skips and glitches that speedrunners have found over the past week. Since release, the record has been broken multiple times, shaving off more than an hour from the initial record.
In Werster’s record-setting playthrough, there were five key skips used involving a few key items, menuing, and a handful of resets. Ultimately through this method, the player was able to enter the Pokémon League and become champion without claiming a single Gym Badge or defeating any of the Elite Four the regular way.
While this time might already seem fast, the YouTuber claims that it can be beaten even using the same route with further optimization and better menuing. Perhaps faster skips will be found in the near future and speedrunners can get the time under 20 minutes.
