An avid speedrunner has already posted a great completion time for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, before the sequel is even available for all players.
Zelda fans will recognize the name, as gymnast86 is well-known for his attempts to quickly complete other titles in the popular Nintendo franchise. Even with limited time and an entirely new game to learn, gymnast86 has already posted a one hour and 34 minute run.
The speedrunner confirmed his first attempt on Thursday, May 11, before Tears of the Kingdom even got a category on speedrunning sites.
When it comes to speedruns in the Zelda franchise, the latest two games in the franchise are designed to allow the best players to complete it quickly. Unlike previous Zelda titles, where players had to go through story beats and complete missions over a long period of time, the recent Zelda games of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both have the option to fight the final boss within hours of starting a new save file.
The only caveat there is the story is designed for players to have acquire key items by then, learning the gameplay, and mastering it over time to defeat Ganon.
Related: Do you need to play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom?
This is where speedrunners like gymnast86 come in, using their extensive knowledge of Zelda speedruns to their advantage. Gymnast86 is a popular Zelda speedrunner, with his best runs documented on his Speedrun.com page. Some of his most notable runs include Skyward Sword HD, where they hold the number one spot for both any percent and New Game+, the top record for glitchless Ocarina of Time 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, and a third place spot for both Majora’s Mask 3D and Twilight Princess HD.
It helps that both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom share a lot in their gameplay, as speedrunners can use similar techniques as runs for the previous game in the franchise. For example, just after posting his run on YouTube and Twitter, gymnast86 followed it up with a tips and tricks video for others to use and improve on.
Related: How to save in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
In the Tears of the Kingdom help video, they highlighted tips like how big bugs that speedrunners used in BotW are patched, but not actually gone. Those same glitches do still exist, but require a new way of activating them.
Asides from bugs, the game has a relatively set start, with players having to play an early section of Tears of the Kingdom that lasts around 40 minutes without any major skips (for now, at least).
Afterward, killing specific enemies for strong loot and progressing through a particular path are key to completing the game, with around an hour left to even get close to gymnast86’s time.
With the way the game is designed, gymnast86 essentially had to do a boss rush at the end; killing all the bosses just before fighting the final one and saving Zelda. And, with this run officially posted at 1am EST on May 12, they completed a sub-two-hour speedrun before everyone in the world could even get their hands on this latest Zelda game.
Published: May 12, 2023 01:24 am