# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #15

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Story of the Week*** is all about *The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-15)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Story of the Week

The *Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* has only been out for two weeks, but it already looks too good to ignore. Let’s take a look at what the speedruns for this game might shape up to be. One major spoiler will be indicated as such, and I did my best to avoid them wherever possible.

### Basic Game Mechanics

In *Echoes of Wisdom,* you’re playing as *Zelda*, finally. But instead of using a sword, shield, bombs and other weapons, *Zelda* wields the *Tri Rod*. This rod allows you to pick up “Echoes” of items or enemies and conjure them again. You may summon a bed to rest and heal, fight your enemies with an army of *Keese*, use floating platforms to fly high in the air or warp to wherever you please by using signs... but we’ll get to that.

Often, the first instinct will have players stack as many objects as possible in order to try to get on top of things which present insurmountable boundaries in other top-down *Zelda* games, like treetops or rocky cliffs. And instead of using invisible walls to prevent you, the game will simply let you do that, which is genius. It creates the illusion of outsmarting the game, when in reality, you’re still playing within its rules. You’re granted plenty of freedom, but no sequence breaks… or are you?

### Tech & Glitches

Speedrunners are infamously persistent and regularly find optimisations and new strategies for games that are decades old. For *Echoes of Wisdom*, it really only took a few days to blow the game wide open. Players very quickly found ways to gain more vertical height than intended and discovered ways to speed up their movement through the world. For example, holding a piece of meat, conjuring a bird and locking the bird with your companion will have the bird push you sideways and slightly upwards through the air, as in some impossible carrot-and-donkey situation.

Better techniques also soon emerged. For example, placing a bed, getting onto it and summoning a specific enemy echo on the opposite side will catapult both Zelda and the bed at high speed. You can trigger this again in mid-air, chaining multiple boosts together and travelling very quickly.

But the major one I want to focus on today, the splitter of categories, is of course: the **W̵̢̋r̴̮̩͝o̵̳̓̽n̶͙̯̓͝g̷̞̒͠ ̴͉̟̾̓W̷̺͝ḁ̷̩͌͠r̸̻̍̔p̵͎̜̏̐**. Wrong warping in general describes teleporting to a different point than normally possible. And often, the system that allows wrong warps in the first place can be tinkered with to get a desired result. And that’s exactly the case in *Echoes of Wisdom*.

All this is enabled through a glitch called ***Pause Storage***. It enables playing the game while the pause menu, map menu or inventory menu is opened. The terms *Map Storage* or *Inventory Storage* are used as well, but I’m going to stick to *Pause Storage* as I believe it includes all variations.

Players can enter this glitched state by interacting with a signboard near a void-out area and quickly opening the *Echo* menu during the void-out. Void-out triggers are placed around areas or at heights that the developers considered too far away from where the player should be. The screen will go black briefly and place them a short distance away from the forbidden area.

Once the glitch is active, selecting a waypoint but not confirming the warp, opening a second map instance, and then confirming, the game will send *Zelda* to a different waypoint than the one originally selected, potentially even one that was previously undiscovered. Then, using an additional manipulation and entering a dungeon (which also has waypoints) in the glitched state before teleporting, players can teleport to a waypoint inside a dungeon with the same index as the waypoint they initially chose on the world map. In the current *Any%* route, this allows a *Wrong Warp* straight into the final dungeon of the game. Here’s a great video by @loohhoo explaining it, and this is where I’ll need to put the big fat

# **SPOILER WARNING**

# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfP65w0gq54

### Leaderboards & Durations

[The leaderboards](https://www.speedrun.com/eow) will open **TODAY**. There are still a few open questions about category names, which ones will be present and some rules, but most of them are set and this is what we can expect:

- **Any%**: No-holds-barred and wrong warping to your heart’s content. As of now, runs are already clocking in at under 40 minutes.
- ***Any% (No Wrong Warp)***: The name might change, but the category won’t allow wrong warping, and might even be mostly glitchless, focusing on playing the game as intended. With the rules still up in the air, it’s hard to estimate a solid time for this category just yet, but around four hours might be a good guess.
- **All Dungeons**: Completing all dungeons. This category might be split into a restricted and an unrestricted variant, but it’s still to be decided what *completing* a dungeon actually means. Unrestricted runs will probably soon be faster than two hours.
- **100%**: Do and collect all the things! It’ll be a long one.
- A category that will end at a rough half-way point of the game

One more thing that needs to be decided is whether or not the use of amiibos will be allowed. Amiibos can grant smoothie ingredients as well as outfits. It’s likely that the leaderboards are open by the time you read this and you’ll find the final categories as well as the rules right there.

### Conclusion

#### With how fast speedruns are changing in the early days of a game’s lifecycle, everything I have written might already be outdated tomorrow. I still think it was worth exploring, learning about it, and giving an early overview of the situation. I expect *Pause Storage* and wrong warping to still be relevant in the future, so this also makes it easier to come back to it at a later point.

#### 

If you’re looking for people attempting speedruns of *Echoes of Wisdom* RIGHT NOW, look no further than **[HERE](https://www.speedrun.com/eow/streams)** on the game’s Speedrun.com page.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-15)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The Gold Split #15 - Signs of Wrong Warps

Before we start, here are a few notes about my thought process in creating this list:

- There are SO many amazing games on the games list that if I wanted to include every single one of them in this list it would be far too long - so we’re gonna keep it pretty limited and [I suggest you comb over the schedule yourself](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/53) to know what runs to look out for!
- Of course, this is all personal opinion, completely biased by my experiences - so keep that in mind!
- Runs will be listed in alphabetical order because I don’t think prioritizing any of them is particularly fair before the event - and you should form your own opinions regardless, this list is just recommending some runs for you to keep an eye out for :)

Also, each game and runner will be hyperlinked :) Alright, let's dig in!

## **[The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom](https://www.speedrun.com/eow) | Any% by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[gymnast86](https://www.speedrun.com/users/gymnast86)**

## ![](/static/blob/oeog99jn.png)

The latest release in the Zelda series is already under an hour and filled with skip goodness. The echoes mechanic alone is designed with creativity in mind and boy are speedrunners creative. I have yet to watch the full route for this run, but I do know that the majority of the game's dungeons are skipped - and that’s all I needed to hear before wanting to see more.

## **[Elden Ring](https://www.speedrun.com/eldenring) | Defeat Consort by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[mitchriz](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Mitchriz)**

## ![](/static/blob/3ekxkk5n.png)

I’ve written about Elden Ring a few times in past articles, and also mitchriz (remember that blindfolded Sekiro run? Amazing.) So naturally, mitchriz running the latest Elden Ring DLC is also an insta-watch for me. From what I gather, this run will be done glitchless so there won’t be and wild zips or anything like that - but instead optimized build creation and brutal combat and I’m here for it.

## **[Payday 3](https://www.speedrun.com/pd3) | 2p Co-op Showcase by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[MetroidCrime](https://www.speedrun.com/users/MetroidCrime) & [IndyVillain](https://www.speedrun.com/users/IndyVillain)**

Payday 3 co-op speedruns are pure efficiency bliss. To add on top of that, MetroidCrime and IndyVillain will be collecting all loot while *also* in full stealth. I’m interested to see how this goes in a marathon setting, but I’m sure Metroid and Indy will put on a good showcase!

![](/static/blob/xz05pp1n.png)

## **Pump It Up Phoenix | Showcase by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[ZELLLOOO](https://www.speedrun.com/users/ZELLLOOO)**

![](/static/blob/kzwr00je.png)

Ever heard of Pump It Up Phoneix? Neither had I before a few months ago when I met ZELLLOOO at Quakecon for our Modern DOOM Speedrunning mini-marathon. If you’re like me, you’ve had *some* experience with arcade dance machines across your lifetime but only ever in a casual setting. ZELLLOOO however, is a completely different beast. He ranks *very* near the top of the global leaderboards - and while this is not actually a speedrun - his feet **WILL** be moving near the speed of light.

## **[Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut](https://www.speedrun.com/sadx) | Small Stories K.A.G. by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[Risuruuu](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Risuruuu)**

## ![](/static/blob/xzd4ll9z.png)

This caught my eye because the SADX:DC relay run was one of the highlights of SGDQ 2023 in which they each played a single story before passing it along to the next runner. The “small stories” category is new to me as of reviewing these submissions, but a more condensed SADX stories-based speedrun sounds like its going to be awesome.

## **[Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus](https://www.speedrun.com/w2) | Any% (Cutscene Skip) by[ ](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Jaxler)[anarchyasf](https://www.speedrun.com/users/anarchyasf)**

## ![](/static/blob/1n57qqve.png)

Wolfenstein 2 is an amazing speedgame with one crippling downside - SUPER long cutscenes with a load of additional downtime. I’m so excited that anarchy has started with cutscene skip in the last months and I hope one day to see a version that could be leaderboard viable - but either way, this is definitely going to be a run you want to check out!

## **Additionally..**

I debated adding this in at all for fear of this article being seen as a self-advertisment - but I *also* got a speedrun into DRDQ! You can catch me clipping through walls and boosting cross-map in the 2016 reboot of DOOM this Friday!


## ![](/static/blob/1n73yy5e.png)

# **Conclusion**

Disaster Relief Done Quick starts this Friday over at [https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick](https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick) - check out the schedule [here](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/53)!

The games list for SGDQ 2024 is now live! Let’s dive in. https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/53

DRDQ Schedule Out Now!

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #14

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Spotlight*** is all about speedrunning Microsoft Excel and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-14)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Spotlight: ExcelObstacleCourse

This week we’re taking a break from console differences, glitches, and even categories. It’s all about raw numbers, accuracy, and execution. If you frequent the r/speedrun subreddit, you will probably have come across a post by the person in the spotlight today: ***[ExcelObstacleCourse](https://linktr.ee/excelobstaclecourse)***

As the name might suggest, they’re all about spreadsheets in general, and *Excel* especially, and have found a unique niche in speedrunning puzzles and obstacles created in the beloved spreadsheet software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kts6EPR97HE

***ExcelObstacleCourse*** is a data scientist, self-proclaimed *Excel* junkie, and old-school gamer, who started their gaming journey with the first Nintendo consoles, playing games like *F-Zero*, *Mario Kart*, *Super Punch Out* and *Blast Corps*, always trying to beat their previous records.

They combined their job with the hobby of going fast and pushing boundaries for the first time 15 years ago:

> The idea to speedrun *Excel* came from a training "*Excel* obstacle course" I came up with about 15 years ago to teach people *Excel* shortcuts at work. We had everyone practice and compete in a conference room at the end of 30 days with gift cards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd spot. Everyone got faster at *Excel* and had a great time at the competition.

Quite different from older games, *Excel* is constantly evolving and has received many changes over the years. But any necessary adjustments were always a welcome challenge, and by now, *ExcelObstacleCourse* feels like they have mastered all the basic keyboard commands and practice them regularly to solve the challenges they create. Just like 15 years ago, their main motivation is still for more people to pick up the craft and potentially even beat their records.

Currently, they keep track of basic leaderboards and a library of videos on their *Discord*, and anybody wanting to join can simply message them (there will be some links below). Despite all efforts, *[Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/)* has so far rejected implementing leaderboards for *Excel*, with the reason being that it’s “not a game”. But in my opinion, this would only hold up if the site didn’t also host IRL activities like [reading](https://www.speedrun.com/IRL_Reading) and [baking](https://www.speedrun.com/IRL_Baking). There’s an insane number of games without a single run on their leaderboards, and if there’s space for those there should also be space for an active yet small community around standardized *Excel* puzzles.

Some of you might be familiar with competitive *Excel* in the form of the *[Financial Modelling World Cup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2QC6VQXo8U)*. I asked *ExcelObstacleCourse* how the necessary skillset differs from speedrunning the puzzles and whether or not they ever considered competing:

> This differs from the Financial Modeling competition because it involves no financial knowledge, no formula writing, just basic hotkeys and Alt-commands to 'clean' or 'transform' data. I would say it benefits data analysts of all types, as well as 'processors' who grind spreadsheets and small data daily. I have no plans to compete in the *FMWC*, but I haven't researched too much into it.

By now, I’m certain that many of you can’t wait to launch *Excel* and improve your skills or even pick up the obstacle course speedruns. You’re in luck because *ExcelObstacleCourse* has a few great videos on their *[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse)*[ channel](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse) to help with just that. If you do give it a shot, tag them, and you’ll likely get a shoutout back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-PeVdBXjsA

Thank you again to *ExcelObstacleCourse* for readily answering my questions! You can find them on **[TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@excelobstaclecourse)**, where most of their livestreams take place, as well as on **[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse)** and **[other platforms](https://linktr.ee/excelobstaclecourse)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-14)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about... Microsoft Excel.

The Gold Split #14 - Spreadsheets

Here’s everything you’ll want to know heading into the challenge:

**Starting Date:** October 4th, 2024 @ 12:00PM UTC

**Duration:** 9 days, until 11:59PM UTC October 13th, 2024

## **Prize Distribution:**

The $750 prize pool will be distributed among the top performers for fastest completion time in the Initiate category. The distribution is as follows:

**1st place** - $300

**2nd place** - $150

**3rd place** - $100

**4th place** - $100

**5th place** - $100

Please note that in order to comply with international tax law, **the challenge cash prize may be subject to tax withholding based on the winner's country of residence.**

## **Participation Prizes:**

As usual with our SRC Series Challenges, we are bringing back participation prizes!

![](/static/blob/qzp7mmwz.png)

First of all, any runner who submits any runs to the Titanfall 2 Speedrun Challenge will receive **one month** of SRC Supporter, if you haven’t heard of Supporter before you may learn more about it[ here](https://www.speedrun.com/supporter)!

Secondly, any challenge participants will be awarded with the title “**Pilot**”. If you’re unfamiliar with Titles, they are a unique descriptor that goes alongside your username on your profile (as well as profile popovers) which can (as of right now) only be acquired by participating in Challenges right here on SRC. To find out more, check out our last article about Titles![ https://www.speedrun.com/news/17vr795x-introducing-titles](https://www.speedrun.com/news/17vr795x-introducing-titles)

## **Eligibility:**

Open to players aged 18 and above worldwide, with the following exceptions: North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela.

If you are under the age of 18, not to worry! You can still participate and win the participation prizes, but unfortunately you will not be eligible for the cash prizes amongst the top 5.

## **Category:**

The category of choice will be revealed shortly before the launch of the challenge!

## **Submission:**

Record your speedrun and submit it via [our Challenge leaderboard here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/64y623rv-titanfall_2-src-series-titanfall-2-helmet-rush-speedrun-challenge)

Follow the guidelines provided for video formatting and submission requirements, found in the rules section. Please note that a new requirement has been added to this challenge, requiring that prize eligible runs must have been live streamed.

## **Rules and Regulations:**

All speedruns must adhere to the official rules, available on the Speedrun.com Challenge leaderboard.

Contest Rules: [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/64y623rv-titanfall_2-src-series-titanfall-2-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=contest](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/64y623rv-titanfall_2-src-series-titanfall-2-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=contest)

Category Rules: [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/64y623rv-titanfall_2-src-series-titanfall-2-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/64y623rv-titanfall_2-src-series-titanfall-2-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge) 

## **Preparation Suggestions**

To find tips & tricks for the speedrun, visit [the Titanfall 2 leaderboard right here on Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/titanfall_2?h=All_Helmets_NCS&x=wdmr5r3k) and/or join [Titanfall 2 Speedrunning Discord Server](https://discord.gg/P3JKjfx4uZ)!  You can also follow either the game or the challenge to receive notifications about challenge activity!

**Good luck, and have fun!️**


Heads up, pilots - I mean speedrunners! It’s time to announce our next SRC Series challenge game for the month of October - Titanfall 2!

SRC Series: Titanfall 2 Speedrun Challenge!

Titanfall 2

The leaderboard is under an embargo period for 2 weeks after release. This is to allow players to enjoy the full experience of the game casually without feeling like they have to rush into developing the speedrun right away. Please take your time and enjoy the game!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Fatzke

4m7jny51

SRC Series: Titanfall 2 Helmet Rush

Rebel Rush Speedrun Challenge

j5y0ly9k

SRC Series: Peggle Initiate Speedrun Challenge

1qpekp36

SRC Series: MULLET MAD JACK Speedrun Challenge

nzy2zyq3

ALTF42 $5000 Speedrun Challenge

The Splodey $10,000 Speedrun Challenge

MoistCr1TiKaL $15,000 Speedrun Challenge #5

Athena Crisis Completionist Speedrun Challenge

1k75870l

Survive both Chapter 1 & 2 of Poppy Playtime

SRC Series: Poppy Playtime Duo Challenge

3dydl7r2

SRC Series: Ultrakill All Secret Levels (Inbounds)

xwpw4y0l

SRC Series: Rocket Racing Expert Tracks

m9yx0ygj

Pit of Eternal Sands - $10,000 Speedrun Challenge

Blood Will Run $10,000 Challenge

m2p98y5x

Peggle Nights

ULTRAKILL

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1

ALTF42 [Early Access]

Ghostrunner 2

Another Crab's Treasure

In order to properly figure out categories, rules, timing method, etc. this leaderboard will not feature any runs for the first two weeks after the game's release. In the meantime you can join us in the [Prince of Persia discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/0Ss0agDWPoiSvr3E) to discuss about the game.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Rocket Racing

MULLET MAD JACK

Athena Crisis

Splodey

Tails Noir: Rebel Rush

Categories are being discussed in the discord and will be created in the coming days/weeks!

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

Metal Slug: Awakening

# Hey everyone, Blxxd here.


## For the next 1.5 weeks, Into the Pit will NOT be open to accepting submissions until we figure out what we want to have for Categories and the like, alongside some more technical details. Stay tuned!

Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit

UFO 50

We will start accepting runs for this game one week after release to give enough time for an optimal route to be placed and for runners to have a run they like ready to submit.

Astro Bot

The official PC port of the game will be released on 1 August 2024, comeback later! // Официальная версия игры для ПК выйдет 1 августа 2024 года, возвращайтесь позже!