Perhaps one of the things that draws the speedrunning community towards the likes ofThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis its sheer size. There is undoubtedly something about being challenged to finish a game of such magnitude in record time. Although there are plenty ofgames that newcomers can learn to speedrun likeSuper Mario Odyssey, Bethesda’s open-world epic is probably not one for the faint of heart. Among those who are more experienced, however, it’s perfectly viable to try and get to the end where Alduin is defeated as quickly as possible. What’s not always frequent, though, is when a single runner manages to set a new world record, and then beat it again soon after.
In a video uploaded to YouTube a couple of days ago, user nucular has managed to smash their previousSkyrimspeedrun time by nearly a full minute, completing the main storyline in 1:11:22, according to the clock in the video. One minute might not sound like a lot, but in speedrunning, every frame and every millisecond counts, so achieving a new world record by a margin of almost 60 seconds is quite an impressive feat, especially given that this was a “glitchless” run in which the player does not utilize significant game exploits to skip large sections of the map.
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Theprevious world record for beatingSkyrimwas 1:12:15, which nucular managed to do at the end of last month. This, in itself, was quicker than the WR before that, beating it by a full two minutes, and was achieved by a new trick discovered in one of the quests. Despite being more than ten years old at this point, it’s impressive that players, and speedrunners, are still finding new things out about the game, and if fans can utilize them to help beat the game in even quicker times, then all the better.
For those curious, the new technique to shave off those additional seconds or minutes during a speedrun involves the A Cornered Rat quest. During the mission, players approachBrynjolf of the Thieves Guild. However, before that moment, the player must cause a guard to chase them through the underground passage. Once the mission involving Brynjolf is complete, the player can then be arrested by the guard, who will then escort them out the area. This acts as a kind of teleportation and will make it easier to get out of said area much quicker.
Given the enormity of the game, it’s not surprising thatfans are logging so many hours inSkyrim. There’s a huge amount of depth to the world and the story, but it’s also interesting to see just how quickly people can get to the final moments as well. It remains to be seen whether nucular will beat this new world record, though they do believe it’s possible to get the time under 1:10.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis available for PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
