The current Pokemon Scarlet and Violet speedrunning champion managed to beat the game in just under five and a half hours thanks in large part to a Flamigo.
As spotted by Automaton (opens in new tab), Pokemon Scarlet and Violet speedruns are now underway with the current roster (at speedrunning.com (opens in new tab)) ranging from around five to seven hours. At the time of writing, the one currently sitting at the top of the leaderboard is US resident Truely, who has managed to beat the English version of the game (any%) in just 5 hours, 27 minutes, and 11 seconds. They've documented the entire run on their YouTube channel (opens in new tab), if you've got a spare six hours to watch it.
What's interesting is that Truely managed to do most of this run just using the Flying/Fighting-type Pokémon Flamigo, which was introduced in Scarlet and Violet. After picking Fuecoco as their starter right at the beginning of the game, Truely then catches a Flamigo and swaps Fuecoco out for it to act as their main Pokemon around the one-hour mark.
As explained in the original story, Flamigo has the ability Scrappy which allows it to use Normal and Fighting-type moves even on Ghost-type Pokemon, and this is partly why Truely and several other people in the speedrunning community use Flamigo for a lot of their playthroughs. It's also one of the first Pokemon you encounter early on in the game, and it has some of the best base stats compared to the other creatures in the area at that stage in the game as well. Expect to see a lot more of this unassuming bird in future runs.
Wondering what Pokemon you'll use for a speedrunning attempt? Take a look at our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Pokedex list.
