Hollow Knight Silksong speedrunner becomes the first person in the world to smash through the enormous metroidvania in less than an hour and they're already planning a faster route

Hollow Knight
(Image credit: Team Cherry)

It's barely been three weeks since Hollow Knight Silksong dropped and one speedrunner has basically done the impossible by beating the normally massive metroidvania in less than an hour, putting me (and probably you) to shame.

Speedrunner Nebula posted their Any% playthrough just yesterday and reached credits in no less than 58 minutes, 52 seconds using maybe the snappiest movement tech I've seen yet. As far as we're aware, Nebula's run is the world's first sub-hour Silksong speedrun or, at least, the first one that's been published on the internet.

Hollow Knight Silksong Any% 58:52 | World Record, First Sub Hour! - YouTube Hollow Knight Silksong Any% 58:52 | World Record, First Sub Hour! - YouTube
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Nebula's sub-hour run was actually so impressively quick, speedrun tracking website appropriately called Speedrun.com hasn't even begun "accepting run submissions yet" and won't for another four whole days to "provide game moderators and the community time to establish categories and rules."

For anyone wanting some handy tips and tricks, Nebula explains in the video's description that "Mist route is actually slightly outdated" just a couple of weeks post-launch and "going through Last Judge is now about 40 seconds faster to an average Mist (this can potentially be like 30s if your average is rly good), but the route requires some difficult skips to make it that fast."

And just in case the average 30-ish-hour playthrough didn't already seem like a slog after watching this speedrun, Nebula says they'll be "learning that route next" to get an even quicker time. "I decided to try and go for sub hour with the Mist first... and well... got this run lol." Welp... accidents happen?

To speed up your runs, here's how to pogo jump in Hollow Knight Silksong and all Silksong ability locations.

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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