The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #30 - The Duality of Speed

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 recent RTA and IGT records in Super Metroid and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes more news, briefly, as well as this week's top times. Check it out HERE.

Story of the Week ✨

Out of the most iconic speedrunning games, Super Metroid might be the one I’m least familiar with. I didn’t grow up with consoles in general and was never curious enough to learn more beyond what the classic saving / killing the animals bid war at Games Done Quick events was about. But times have changed. I’m now writing a newsletter about speedrunning. Let’s dive in!

This week’s news is what prompted my newfound interest: in the Any% category, a new RTA record had been set and (independently) a new barrier in IGT had also been broken. Let’s learn together about the differences between the two, what constitutes them and why both are outstanding achievements.

The different ways to achieve Any%

Any% is generally known to be the fastest way to beat a game. No restrictions* apply. But while Any% is a category, RTA and IGT are different ways of timing the playthrough and segmented runs also fall into this section.

RTA stands for real time attack, is the most common timing method and refers to the real-world time measured from start to finish, unwaveringly, regardless of loading screens, room transitions, dialogues, menus, lag or anything else that doesn’t mess with the natural flow of time.

IGT on the other hand stands for in-game time and is a game-specific timing method. This timer is only running when certain conditions that the developers set are met. Many games simply don’t measure this metric or don’t ever tell the player, so it doesn’t apply there. In the case of Super Metroid, the timer is stopped during the pause menu, room transitions, item fanfares and others.

Importantly, Super Metroid’s timer rounds up to the next full minute and doesn’t deal with seconds. The new RTA record set on January 31st clocks in at 40:22.010, with an in-game time of 27:00. Less than 24 hours after, the first run ever with an IGT of 26:00 was achieved. However, that run took over 42 minutes in real time - much longer than the new RTA record. Intuitively, one would expect that a faster run in RTA would also mean a faster IGT, but this isn’t always the case. Let’s have a brief look at both runs.

RTA Timing

In The Gold Split #26, @Kosmic predicted a new RTA Any% record for 2025 by somebody who has never held it before. In the last ten years, only three people have been at the top: @zoast, @Behemoth87 and @Oatsngoats.

On January 31st, @ShinyZeni set a new world record with a time of 40:22.010, surpassing @Oatsngoats August 2023 record by almost 14 seconds - just as @Kosmic had predicted.

The current RTA route uses the fastest known path through the game: PRKD. This acronym describes the order in which four bosses are defeated: Phantoon → Ridley → Kraid → Draygon

The route prioritises minimising real-world time loss over almost anything else. This means:

• Skipping unnecessary items: this may result in riskier boss fights and more tricky movement.
• Minimising lag: particle effects can slow the game down. Conversely, strategically taking damage can cause a reduction in lag since then the game only renders Samus every other frame. Over the years many more micro-optimisations have been developed to combat lag.
• Fewer and faster room transitions: after entering a door, the game aligns them with the center of the screen before the next room is revealed. While not an issue for IGT timing, it’s possible to lose a lot of real time throughout the run if this isn’t done properly.

But even within these boundaries there is some room for nuanced decisions. Technically, at a minimum 15 missiles and 10 super missiles are necessary to finish the game. But if you choose that path and lose one or get unlucky with item drops, the run is basically lost. @ShinyZeni opts for a more conservative approach: 20 missiles and 10 super missiles. This loses a few seconds due to an additional item fanfare when picking up the missile pack, but makes up for it with more consistency and allows a more aggressive approach in the fight against Ridley.

@ShinyZeni now holds not only the Any% world record, but also stands at the top of the 100% and Reverse Boss Order categories. Improving on such a well-optimized record by such a significant margin has firmly cemented his place at the top of the game.

IGT Timing

Back in January of 2019, @zoast became the first person to achieve a run with an in-game time of 27 minutes. In the years since, many others have matched this milestone. But on February 1st 2025, he broke the next barrier and achieved a run with an in-game time of 26 minutes for the first time.

We’ve already learned about optimisations for the RTA timing. But the in-game timer doesn’t always run and stops during room transitions, item pickup fanfares and slows down while the game is experiencing lag. Therefore, many of the techniques used to reduce real-world time losses just don’t apply for the IGT timing and additional Items may be picked up without a time penalty.

Instead of following the PRKD boss order, the IGT route uses KPDR (Kraid → Phantoon → Draygon → Ridley). Getting the Plasma Beam before the fight against Ridley saves around 30 seconds in IGT during the fight alone, but because of additional transitions and use of the menu it’s unfavourable for RTA runs. This trade-off is a recurring theme throughout the run. Both the route as well as the way the game is played end up significantly different.

Technically it’s possible to precisely measure IGT down to the exact frame by reading RAM values. This would avoid ties on the leaderboard, but is completely impractical for runners on original hardware.

Conclusion

Super Metroid Any% is a perfect example of how speedruns with the same goal can evolve differently depending on the timing method used. The differences come down to route choices, risk management, and how each run optimises movement, item pickups, and lag reduction.

Want to get involved and learn more or try a run yourself? Check out:

• 📖** Super Metroid Speedrunning Wiki**
• 🎮** Leaderboards & Runs**

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.

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 or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨

*| It depends on the game. Some might still impose rules on Any% in order to level the playing field and ensure a fair competition. Also, cheating generally isn’t allowed. Don’t cheat.