A new Elden Lord has been crowned. On April 21, Elden Ring speedrunner N1ghtglow, a Chinese player sporting a respectable profile picture of Persona 5's Haru on Speedrun.com, set a new world record for the glitchless any% category of FromSoftware's open-world epic, beating the previous holder, fellow Chinese runner Okkotsu_Yuta, by just four seconds at 52:12. That's how tight the Elden Ring races have become, but this run stands out not just because it's a bit faster, but also because it makes for incredible TV.
The YouTube version of the run mirroring the bilibili video is a one-hour Elden Ring masterclass (run time pauses during loading screens, hence the time discrepancy). Like the other world record contenders, it starts with a mad dash to one of the most overpowered weapons in the game: Death's Poker, a frostbite-stacking weapon capable of deleting bosses in seconds. The Death Rite Bird that drops it rather clumsily and mysteriously falls off a ledge – a running theme for these speedruns.
The part that kills me – and, according to YouTube's watch timeline, the part everyone else keeps coming back to – is the workaround for the Draconic Sentinel fought outside Leyndell city. And by the way, this fight, much like Radahn, is done before Margit, which is the main boss most people fight first in standard playthroughs.
Around 23 minutes in, N1ghtglow kills this mini-boss, once known as a reasonable difficulty wall following Elden Ring's release, in a single hit. The execution is spellbinding.
The Draconic Sentinel, like some other mounted enemies, has a unique stagger animation. When you hit him with enough attacks, or simply parry him flat, he'll buckle and pause rather than fully collapse like humanoid bosses. If hit during this state, he'll sort of limp away in the opposite direction of your attack.
N1ghtglow combines all of these behaviors to parry the sentinel right next to a ledge, swiftly run behind him, and send him flailing over a cliff with one hit to his horse's rear, the movements perfectly mirroring those samurai film parodies where the hero sheathes their sword at lightning speed and entire trees fall to pieces behind them. I would be furious if I were this Draconic Sentinel.
Commenters on YouTube flagged another exceptional moment: the Maliketh fight 59 minutes in. By setting up frostfire with Death's Poker, N1ghtglow is able to beat the first phase of the fight the moment it begins, and a stylish mid-air stagger angled upward makes short work of Maliketh proper.
The entire run is just Death's Poker and gravity making hamburger beat out of some of the most feared bosses in gaming, and one mad lad samurai starter class beating all of Elden Ring faster than I usually get through a few bosses. It's no wonder Elden Ring has a famously long sales tail – people are still actively pushing this game beyond its limits.
