Elden Ring has already been beaten in under 20 minutes

By Otto Kratky Published March 28, 2022

While the rest of us are 60 or 70 hours into Elden Ring (I personally hate and can’t get past the Godskin Duo), speedrunners have slowly whittled down the game’s playtime. However, one runner has claimed the new world record for beating Elden Ring the fastest, completing FromSoftware’s latest game in under 20 minutes.

WORLDS FIRST Any% Elden Ring in under 20 minutes!! Changed a flight and did a 15h stream for this, almost gave up hope, but in the end I prevailed. Thank you everyone who was there and supported me during this insane stream <3 pic.twitter.com/I32a4BzA9q

— Distortion2 (@Distortion_2) March 28, 2022

In a post on Twitter, Distortion2, a speedrunner who’s completed numerous FromSoftware games faster than it takes for most people to quit them, announced that he had beaten Elden Ring in just 18:58, cementing him at the top of the game’s any-percent run leaderboard. At the time of writing, it seems that Distortion2’s run either hasn’t been submitted to Speedrun.com or is still being verified. The site, which catalogs runs for hundreds of games, lists a 26:26 time from spiceeTV as the fastest.

While Distortion2’s time is impressive, it may not be the fastest any-percent speedrun of Elden Ring for long. The game’s speedrunning community is booming at the moment, with more runs being posted every day. Just yesterday, Distortion2 uploaded another speedrun of the game, in which he beat it in 22:21. Without a doubt, other runners will see Distortion2’s time and try to finish the game even quicker.

As a matter of fact, one speedrunner is already claiming to have beaten Elden Ring faster than Distortion2. Mitchriz, who many may remember from his blindfolded speedrun at AGDQ 2022, said in a post on Twitter that he managed to beat the game in 18:25, over 30 seconds faster than Distortion2. However, because he missed recording a minute of gameplay, that run can’t be verified.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

Elden Ring: How to find and use Rune Arcs

An Elden Ring player sits on their horse and looks out at a castle ahead.

Like everything else developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is painfully difficult. It'll take you hundreds of hours to discover everything it has to offer, and unless you're a grizzled veteran, you'll likely hit the "Game Over" screen thousands of times before your journey in the Lands Between comes to an end.

One way to help even the odds is by using Rune Arcs — a consumable item that lets you access Great Runes. You'll first need to unlock Great Runes to start properly using Rune Arcs, but once that's taken care of, you'll notice a big boost in your abilities.

Gaming

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree finally arrives this June

A furnace golem looms in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

We finally got our first full look at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the expansion for FromSoftware's critically acclaimed 2022 open-world game. Thankfully, we don't have to wait too much longer for it, as publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment confirmed a June 21 release date.

The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree trailer is full of gameplay, showing the new area that players can explore, many different bosses and combat encounters, and some awesome new weapons. Standouts include a boss that's a giant burning wicker man, a large hippo-like creature that can grow sparks out of its body, and a powerful-looking flaming crossbow weapon. The trailer also shows the player dying many times, so it looks like Shadow of the Erdtree will feature a lot more of the satisfying, yet difficult gameplay loop that the original offered.

Gaming

Lies of P has ignited my love of Soulslikes in a way FromSoftware never could

A robot holds Pinocchio in Lies of P.

If you know my tastes, you know that I have a love-hate relationship with the Soulslike genre. Well, more like a hate-hate relationship. Historically, I’ve never had the patience for critical darlings like FromSoftware’s Bloodborne that forced me to bang my head against hard bosses for hours on end. Elden Ring would alleviate a lot of my frustrations with the genre thanks to its open-ended structure, but it didn’t exactly have me rushing back to give Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice another chance.

So it comes as a personal surprise that I’m currently obsessed with Lies of P. At first, I was sure I wouldn’t click with a game that looked like a Bloodborne clone from an unproven developer; I was mostly just in it for its bizarre Pinnochio premise. The more I’ve played, though, the more I’ve become engrossed in the atmospheric action RPG. What once enraged me has finally become a motivator in my quest to kill a city full of twisted puppets.