A Tears of the Kingdom speedrunner beat the game in under two hours
Tears of the Kingdom speedrunners are already marathoning the Zelda game, though there’s plenty of room for improvement. On Tears of the Kingdom launch day, YouTuber gymnast86 posted a video showcasing their record-setting run that took 1:32:33, with a follow-up video explaining how they pulled it off.
They didn’t say whether it involved using a leaked copy of the game, though that seems like a given, considering their familiarity with Tears of the Kingdom’s flow just hours after the game officially released.
Since it is a full playthrough, be aware that there will be story and encounter spoilers in the video.
After finishing the tutorial on Great Sky Island, which gymnast86 said they couldn’t find an alternative for, they descend to Hyrule and follow the critical path without exploring dungeons or completing any side content, with just one exception. They spend a few minutes gathering high-level fusion material to piece together strong weapons.
Then, it’s time for the final gauntlet, which sees them face off against all the dungeon bosses – since they weren’t defeated previously – before the final fight against Ganondorf.
While the tutorial section took a significant amount of time, gymnast86 said Nintendo also patched out a few well-loved Breath of the Wild tricks that helped speedrunners clear the open-world prequel faster. The BLSS glitch, which lets Link fly if you’re exceptionally good at pressing buttons quickly, is one of them, alongside the whistle glitch that lets Link run without losing stamina.
Gymnast86 said there’s still room for improvement, though, and they expect their run to be outdated within a few days after more people dig into the game and figure out how to break it.
