Distortion2 reclaims Elden Ring speedrun record with 12 minutes and 13 seconds

Elden Ring has been out for close to two months and the speedrunning community is in full force. Many different Elden Ring speedrunners are putting their skills, strategies, and a little luck to the test in going for the world record in the any-percent category. Content creator Distortion2 carved another record for himself within the category today.

Runs in the any-percent category typically use glitches and skips to complete the game as fast as possible. Players often skip bosses and large portions of the game, and the new world record is no different.

The previous world record held by Mitchriz was the first sub-13 minute run with a time of 12 minutes and 32 seconds—an incredible run that blew Distortion2’s previous world record run of 19 minutes out of the water. Distortion2, however, did not back down and came back with another world-record rebuttal run of his own.

The new world record for Elden Ring any-percent is Distortion2’s run at 12 minutes and 13 seconds. It involves the same methods as the Mitchriz run and greatly employs the new zip glitch to skip most of the game and its bosses.

The zip glitch was recently discovered and “zips” the character around the map quickly. It involves precise timing to pull off and plays a slight role in the RNG aspect of the runs. With near-frame perfect timings, runners can find themselves struggling to take off.

In combination with the zip glitch, the Icerind Axe is still the weapon of choice for its Hoarfrost Stomp weapon art, and the wrong-warp skip discovered in pre-Patch 1.03 runs is used to get to Crumbling Farum Azula. This is the glitch that skips the majority of the game. Within the Farum Azula, Distortion2 uses the zip glitch twice to get to the final area boss, Maliketh. He is the only boss that is fought during this run.

Once defeated, the game continues back to the ash-covered Leyndell, where another zip is used to get to the base and entrance of the Great Erdtree, though the run is not done yet. The final mega zip is what will skip the final boss of the game. 

The mega zip is a massive skip. Though not as big as the Farum Azula wrong warp, it’s crucial to get the first try to preserve the run’s speed. The zip will send the character far off out-of-bounds to the north and leave the character in a falling state. The magic comes when the character falls far enough. At some point during the fall, the final fight with the Elden Beast is triggered, and because the character is so far away, the Elden Beast will fall off the map to its death. Once it’s defeated, it is a simple title screen quit-out and reload. Upon reloading, players will interact with Radagon at the Elden Throne to beat the game.

Distortion2’s run only adds to the competitive nature of the any-percent category in Elden Ring. Several fans are vying for the title and discovering new strategies to beat the game as quickly as possible, and every second counts.