If you still have one or even both of the two mandatory bosses left to beat in Elden Ring before you can start the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC on Friday, don't worry, as speedrunners are proving you can literally start from scratch and be ready to go in under half an hour.
While you don't need to beat the entire base game to step into the Land of Shadow, any Tarnished wanting to see what all the hype is about will first have to slay both Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood (not the Omen version you find in Leyndell's sewer). Neither of these are actually mandatory for the main Elden Ring story, so returning players may not have sent them packing yet, and new fans jumping in thanks to the DLC might be starting totally fresh. However, it's clearly never too late to make a start, as is being demonstrated by a group of Elden Ring speedrunners.
Right now, a number of speedrunners are competing in a bounty challenge to become the fastest to complete Elden Ring's DLC requirements on a new save file. Started by Twitch streamer NuclearPastaTom, the rules are simple: start as the Wretch class, follow glitchless Any% speedrun rules (although one skip that allows you to use a Stake of Marika to get to Radahn's fight faster is allowed), only use regular Smithing Stone weapons, don't quit out of the game at doors, graces or during boss dialogue, and, of course, kill Radahn and Mohg. For a valid run, competitors are also required to kill Magnus the Beast Claw, who must be invaded in order to complete Varre's quest offline. This is key to getting a fast pass to Mohg, since Varre gives you an item to teleport to the area.
So, how are things looking? According to the list of submitted responses, which has been steadily updated with new entries over the last week, the two fastest times right now are both below 28 minutes, with Mitchriz at 27 minutes 55 seconds, and Spicee at 27 minutes 39 seconds. Thursday is the final day for new submissions, so we'll just have to wait and see who emerges victorious, be it either of these two or someone entirely new.
Obviously, these runs are super streamlined and not exactly reflective of a more casual playthrough of the game, but by following the same path – namely, getting Varre's quest done as fast as possible and also making a beeline to Caelid to show Radahn who's boss – you should be done very quickly. You can watch Mitchriz in action below if you want to watch how the pros do it.
Of course, starting from scratch and rushing things like this means that you'll be missing a lot of level-ups that you'd normally have picked up from throughout your journey, as well as plenty of gear and weapons, so even if you can get into the DLC, you might not be very well equipped. However, very conveniently, the same item used to get to Mohg faster also lands you in the vicinity of the best Rune farming spot in the game, so you can easily (and safely) grind for some extra stat boosts while you're at it.
It's felt like a long time coming, but Shadow of the Erdtree is almost here, and its review scores suggest it's definitely been worth the wait. The expansion's average critic score on Metacritic currently places it as the highest-rated release of 2024, which is massive when you consider it's beaten the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Balatro, and many more in order to do so.
You can also check out our guide on how to start the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in Elden Ring so that you're fully prepared for its release.
