The 7th Souls Charity Marathon takes place December 1-3rd!

# **What is Souls Charity Marathon?** 

Formerly known as 'SpeedSouls Charity Marathon', this is the Souls Speedrunning community's beloved charity marathon. It consists of 3 days of back-to-back Souls speedrun content, but is not exclusive to just those games! During the event you can expect high level speedruns, randomizers, and our yearly tradition, the community relay race. The marathon benefits [Save the Children](https://www.savethechildren.net/) and has fundraised a total of $126,000 to date.

# **What is the relay race?** 

The relay race consists of two teams of speedrunners who will race through the entire Souls series, and for the first time including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Every year the relay race features a different category for this race, this year teams will speedrun the Any% Glitchless category of their games. This entire race is projected to be approximately 7 hours, and is not to be missed as it is truly the highlight of the event.

# **When is the marathon?** 

The marathon is December 1st-3rd, find the schedule [here](https://oengus.io/marathon/scm2023/schedule).

# **Where to find us:**

**Twitch**: [SoulsSpeedruns](https://www.twitch.tv/soulsspeedruns)
**Twitter**: [@SoulsSpeedruns](https://twitter.com/soulsspeedruns) 
**Website**: [soulsspeedruns.com](https://soulsspeedruns.com)

Don't miss out on our 7th annual marathon! Come for the Souls runs, stay for the community.

Souls Charity Marathon is a community speedrun event filled with Souls series speedruns, randomizers, and our special feature relay race. Come join this one-of-a-kind event in efforts to raise funds for Save the Children.

Souls Charity Marathon is back for its 7th year this December!

The Callisto Protocol (referred to simply as Callisto from here on out) is a survival horror game developed by Striking Distance Studios. Released in December of last year, you play as intergalactic cargo pilot Jacob Lee whose spaceship crash lands on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/N7rQhJqTDNTdVxVJPoUBLQbdAU7GO5XvV6PdpOf-6jD4N9GLHp2wj5lEwrvJhrht_fuXnCseIV7srzu5suirsJdxR5SgrS5TukljM6wcLP_7cige4dp2JXW3Lr_JxHiwItwAW7KqWnlaHN5FH6lDljQ)

Callisto’s 5th level, Lost, is one of the most hated levels among the Callisto community. Before the developers added cutscene skips in an update earlier this year, this level would clock in around **30 minutes** glitchless. Lost features several lengthy cutscenes, frustrating combat sections, autoscrollers, and **lots** of downtime.

# Lost I, II, & III

In Callisto, checkpoints are only loaded once the corresponding map file is loaded in memory, meaning it is not possible to skip from one map to another, even if the coordinates in the game world overlap. Skipping from a checkpoint earlier in a map to one later on is fair game.

Lost is broken up into three map files.

- *Snowcat_Persistent* (Lost I)
- *Hanger_Persistent* (Lost II)
- *Europa_Tunnels_Persistent* (Lost III)

*Snowcat* is the first and longest section, *Hanger* is the second section and is mostly unskippable cutscenes and story stuff, *Tunnels* is only a single cutscene. For this piece, I will only be talking about the first section of Lost, *Snowcat*, as it is the only notable section of this level.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/iYDUcwmz2a8bF02YP9jo-9_R9EsUh_ebQAE-V7Yz-8m-zxbltYNsbIXol4GVoY0bCjZDaMijYK5k5bLBjoTKm0Uiw5cNe6apKd3yERSBe5yVh5RViFph1EG8jIQ60IhH9Otgq2MhfogcF7hMkQTMUiY)

# Early Days of Lost Skip

On December 7th 2022, less than a week after Callisto was released, community member @Symystery would unknowingly post the first step to Lost Skip. Symystery had found a way to walk out of bounds before the first frustrating fight scene. He said that he thought it wasn’t useful. He would be correct, this discovery wasn’t useful yet. Little did the community know that this would open the door for one of the biggest skips in the run.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/hv0ISEOIdXbrpdCP7cFnqITP4cqC5NCd9AWoVB1vohB719KQQ14Z7gwIeCZplL_u5FfWVJPtVdQQeRfCtcINEPiDwZvaoAvo2VE2dZuYUESa1aiGPlHjQNyG2WkLNSQmBS0L2hx7GyWgVWjI57q-txo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpPAG9hdiw

# New Tech 

A month later, on January 4th, @Looney would find a new tech called Inventory Hovering.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/n90pFmAH3p0gYWkjGrYBl_P1fY2ROxeo9DVlq6Z9rWBkSayAxFiH4gL1cFftKNO_xiaP9JnPG2uEyhW9jeI5wD-OBhIvsTh6GDFDPSGLkjfdRr_SWspZsP3UwiRg9q74ouiJkhypixa01eTGMmswYdo)

Jacob has an inventory that he can open by pressing TAB where he can view his arsenal and gear up for combat. Once you press TAB, Jacob’s momentum starts to slow down and then comes to a halt a second later. Once stopped, his coordinates in the game world become frozen until he is either attacked by an enemy or closes the inventory. By opening the inventory as soon as you hit certain collision while dropping from an elevated surface, Jacob is able to maintain the frozen Z coordinate (The player's height) but his X and Y will continue to move in the direction of the collision. This allows the player to fly through the air in the direction the collision sends them.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/JoMYfmMBqNyjs4_cnQ04_fa5jrK_DvfiFatQNzhKdozAVNaazC_0ykojnUwu_3FfkdO2hSPTVvq47BnXRGcTsezr5X68omT8mxGzmcuxFzM1KfaT_tFIbnHzAYFxr9xqIJroNbnGMouOKNWyHVC_yzc)

You may think that this sounds really broken, and it is, but it has its problems. For one it doesn’t work on every piece of collision, you usually have to hit some kind of sloped or angled surface. Hovering through the air is also much slower than running speed so you have to make sure whatever you are skipping by doing the hover is faster than just running through the level.

# The First Breakthrough

A few days later, Looney would find a way to use the new Inventory Hover tech combined with the out of bounds Symystery had posted a month earlier to fly into the out of bounds space to hover over a large death barrier which would instantly kill anything that touched it.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RBZgjLYcxzUMJZaIW2zutyjT3InnyJF1FCpVtnMjnsWwPY7csbVBbfdr1SFvKQQ8OOhT58rzmaxNSM_ONeFQIUa0IpEOAiLWZfIfgktCVDwVUTPiwA2Fav39Zn-WfyuwrMH4irfX-sYl8dV2ZJuo_cI)

Once out of bounds, he found a way to scale the large mountain in front of the player.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/-MxkHHeQt-D0g9SsFupXLOikNgRPliZuXWM9z_rGjX4aHnFQsvRObztONpvPmTWw7IZUkSQz9ykh0Hn01GpagMXta3gY8prkYW2uDrFotVWskZGsKqXNAozGLIY6b847IlH7UU2z5Dw6-K2IkTcP1CM)

Navigating the out of bounds space is very difficult because everything is extremely low detail to save on resources. Most of the textures do not match the actual collision that is present in the game world, meaning in some instances you are able to walk on what seems like thin air. If you stray too far from the path up the mountain the level will also unload. Additionally, there is invisible collision all over the out of bounds space, and you need to do some certain camera movements to unload them. All of this combined made finding a good path to take to the top of the mountain difficult, but not impossible.

From the top of this mountain you can do a precise setup to get stuck inside of a rock and do another piece of tech called a Stomp Launch to fly **thousands** of coordinates towards Jacob’s ship which has the final cutscene required to complete the first part of Lost.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/NUMBNOv6bBVTz-L7yfnIygumuK1Q3qAPU2RwfTUzPGbpXp8tKbqFR7Strb7SBg0BmOjBp9WXEPBdhPRpKjknMB8pXq4CUEM6zBjKXEauyxtIPmDWoxW1QNyoQp89WkEalmWAkPTzpdH8b_0qrFRdHkU)

# Stomp Launches

If the player stomps into certain collision, Jacob will go flying through the air backwards. We can use this to cross decently sized gaps or holes. We do this in a few other parts of the game, like the start of Outbreak to skip the entire level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emvNsAohWtw?t=49

If Jacob is stuck inside of collision, the collision unloads, and then the player stomps at the same time - Jacob will fly thousands and thousands of coordinates backwards. You can aim where he will launch if you aim Jacob’s back in the direction you wish to fly towards. Once in the air Jacob will only stop if he hits a wall, a floor, or if the player reloads the last checkpoint.

There are many factors that determine how far of a Stomp Launch you will get. Some of these things include:

- The player’s angle towards the object
- The timing on when the player stomps (how early/late)
- How deep the player is in the collision
- The current framerate/FPS (higher = farther launches)

Due to stomps being determined by the framerate, the Callisto community decided to put a cap of no higher than 120 FPS to try and mitigate hardware discrepancies between runners.

# Patch 1.8

In April, Striking Distance Studios released patch 1.8 that allowed the player to skip almost all cutscenes in the game. This saved almost 1 hour in glitchless. You might think that this would have a big impact on the run, but you would be wrong

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/WR-KevvAx-oRSfg7AXGjl2a6DYTLkH6HxG3xZxmrV5Cv5ocM0xZBylmL7f0C9BZsyIEH7NMj48G2LHfDCOV6dY73BeTXcRJsJ5py78I0a8bxZTqpUc-GybhWfhQjiXgYLGTHR7tpxPFXXmI9cOG9Qbg)

In the same update Striking Distance Studios fixed the very first out of bounds that made Lost Skip possible in the first place. They raised the invisible wall, meaning it was no longer possible to get out of bounds the same way we used too.

A few months prior, Striking Distance also patched Aftermath Skip, which saved around 15 minutes with cutscene skips. This was no problem for the community, as we would simply play on the fastest version by downpatching - but this was different.

Since Lost Skip saved around 12 minutes with the cutscene skips combined with the fact that they had patched Aftermath Skip in a previous update (which saved nearly 20 minutes) this made the patch with cutscene skips slower than the one where you had to sit through all of the unskippable cinematics.

The community was pretty upset. They had released an update to skip almost all of the down time and optimally it wasn’t even faster to play on this version. Some community members returned, and we saw @sharkhat lower the world record by a few minutes with cutscene skips, but the community knew it could go much lower on the old patch![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/m7ZNnHkVwyen1-GLyT5_eN0MIttmF81oZ077PTgeQ0LhIzchwFMQmvwnDP6rQdLVtmfiFLEHGnBmBqH1VnKQuRl5FmndHQlcDc2Uc8eUbw5soCmpH-gLxlWNyuZJHR0_NncWT-BGEXfQT0ZQFfuvFRw)

# Early Leads

The community wasn’t ready to give up. We knew that if we found any way to get out of bounds again it was possible. Looney, Sharkhat, and Symystery would go looking for Lost skip again on the cutscene skip patch. Symystery [had posted a theory](https://discord.com/channels/1040028798432845831/1040028799041032211/1098307092646985849) only a day after 1.8 was released, where you could get a stomp launch earlier a little earlier in the level.

![](/static/blob/5ng5r4zq.png)

Unfortunately - nothing ever came from this particular discovery.

# Where We Are Today

Thankfully, a few days later Symystery would find a way to do Lost Skip on cutscene skip patch, which officially made the version with cutscene skips faster than without.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIThtSrns8s

Currently Lost I sits around a comfortable 8 minutes, significantly better than the 30 minute grind it used to be before Lost Skip and the addition of skippable cutscenes.

I want to give a big shoutout to @Looney and the rest of the Callisto speedrunning community, because without everyone working together we never would have been able to find as much as we did in Callisto.

Is the game solved? Definitely not, there are certainly discoveries yet to be made and sub 1 hour seems like it is within reach - but only time will tell.

Let's dive into how Callisto speedrunners took a 30 minute level down to just 8 minutes.

Callisto Community Breaks The Longest Level - Lost

Before beginning, I should mention I already covered some important discoveries from the demo period of the game which will be referenced in this article - if you want to read up on that first you can do so [here!](https://www.speedrun.com/news/wo83ee5m-ghostrunner-community-tackles-new-demo) Also, obvious spoiler warning for Ghostrunner 2.

The Ghostrunner 2 $10,000 Speedrun Challenge lasted two weeks, from October 26th to November 9th. In that time, the run time for the best runners has gone from around 1.5 hours to under an hour.

### The First Night (October 24th)

GR2 was first released around 11 am Eastern on October 24th, 2023, and over the next 11 hours a whopping 34 strats were shared amongst the community, with 200+ threads in the strats channel to date - let’s go over some of the larger discoveries and highlights from day one and beyond.

**Speedtech: Jump Start**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMHs6PSS3p4

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166395624841818224/1166395624841818224](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166395624841818224/1166395624841818224)

Bike movement was pretty fun before with rhythmic boost management, but the addition of new levels that allow you to dismount the bike led to the discovery of the Jump Start speedtech. To Jump Start, all you need to do is dismount the bike, and grapple back to it. There is a timing to it, and it works better when leaving certain geometry/ramps which brings a new interesting skill to master.

**Pillars of Creation: Pillars Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5tfs1z_bw

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166435088276406282/1166435088276406282](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166435088276406282/1166435088276406282)

Pillars is the largest skip to date, bringing a 20+ minute level down to just 50 seconds. Very simple, but satisfying.

**Elevator Maintenance: Initial OOB Route**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPXL3mwHi90

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166439007970934784/1166439007970934784](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166439007970934784/1166439007970934784)

First draft for an OOB route of Elevator Maintenance, routing in the Tempest Boost tech which becomes possible after collecting enough Memory Shards throughout the game and purchasing the Pressure Booster upgrade after Danse Macabre.

**Too Close To The Sun: Initial OOB Route**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK0n7nReBB8

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166449888066805760/1166449888066805760](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166449888066805760/1166449888066805760)

First draft for an OOB route of Too Close To The Sun, including a flux strat that clears out half an arena in one satisfying sweep.

**Winds of the Desolate: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Gate Skips**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSOQw2fcaZk

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166451792310194296/1166451792310194296](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166451792310194296/1166451792310194296)

With the room with the lever that opens Gate 2 visible from the outside, LongerWarrior figured out that if you can wallclimb (or tempest boost in NG+) up to the chainlink fence, you can use the Blink ultimate ability to “clip through” (more like teleport past) the fence using the enemy and simply open the gate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmWmyllp2YA

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166452821386854470/1166452821386854470](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166452821386854470/1166452821386854470)

The initial version of 3rd Gate Skip, also known as rooftop skip. In an even earlier version, we would get over the roof, lower the lift, drive the bike onto the lift, bring the lift up and keep going - but it was discovered that you could instead DSJ your way to the next checkpoint, reload, and spawn the bike right on you.

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

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166454987707138128/1166454987707138128](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166454987707138128/1166454987707138128)

This one is as simple as they come, simply wallclimb (or tempest boost in NG+) over the gate and hit the button on the other side to open it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP7HvEBpL6Q

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166455710603817073/1166455710603817073](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166455710603817073/1166455710603817073)

By riding the bike up high and driving right off the wall at an angle, you can land right by the 5th gate and then take a small trip OOB to the right of it to hit the button.

**You Shouldn’t Have Peaked: Rahu Phase Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ_uzE1wy_E

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166458517054562345/1166458517054562345](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166458517054562345/1166458517054562345)

The pathing has changed since this initial discovery, but the basic idea is the same - DSJ out and down to the area below you, skipping from Rahu’s phase 1 down to phase 3.

**Behind The Curtain: Shadow Skill Skip**

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

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166467035207831643/1166467035207831643](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166467035207831643/1166467035207831643)

GR2 would normally require you to take a detour into the room to the left, grab the Shadow Skill, and then do an arena fight. However, instead we can do some parkour to get up and out of the room right into the next one. Following this, there are some strats/skips to get around the rooms that would otherwise require the Shadow Skill.

**Setting The Stage: Pipes Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu5p8NjCAD0

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166478394117074985/1166478394117074985](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166478394117074985/1166478394117074985)

This ended up being slightly slower than just moving through the inbounds space - but was the first step in something bigger.

**Can Anyone Hear Me?: Challenge Warp**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX9EM6YPLnU?t=6

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166479955165712464/1166479955165712464](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166479955165712464/1166479955165712464)

As it turns out, by starting the challenge terminal (a sort of minigame) the game gives you a checkpoint that warps you to the END of an otherwise very dense arena fight. This is by far one of my favorite strats because it's just so silly.

**Speedtech: Flow Surge Strats**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWCuFnAa05E

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166513818239766539/1166513818239766539](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166513818239766539/1166513818239766539)

In Danse Macabre, Taartin found that the Flow Surge ability allows you to immediately break through The Dismantler's green shield phases. As of the latest WR at the time of writing, Pasiflora executed the strategy flawlessly, completing the entire fight in an impressive 1m20s.

**A Price To Be Paid: Won't Pay The Price**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkUVk4AUaR8

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166493807882276904/1166555574931034132](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166493807882276904/1166555574931034132)In the level “A Price To Be Paid”, it’s possible to get out of bounds almost immediately and finish the level in under **20 seconds** - skipping the boss fight.

### **Day 2 (October 25th)**

**Speedtech: Speedforce / Permanent Flow Boost**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=708lay4OSQU

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166858536005931029/1166858536005931029](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166858536005931029/1166858536005931029)

By equipping the Flow Booster upgrade, slicing some enemies, and then *unequipping* Flow Booster you can **permanently** (for the current level) keep the speed boost. By getting a 10x combo, we can keep 10% bonus speed - if we were somehow able to get an extremely high combo very quickly, we could get much higher than 10% ;)

**Monolith of Inhumanity: Mitra Fast CV Phases**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKRl8g7E324

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166827929339179078/1166827929339179078](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166827929339179078/1166827929339179078)

The Mitra bossfight is broken up into 6 phases, 3 of which are traditional sword fight phases, and 3 Cybervoid phases which involve a bit more platforming. @Blaidan discovered if you managed to get a swing in on Mitra before he moved further into the Cybervoid, you could skip the rest of the phase - and then shared how to do that on all 3 CV phases.

**You Shouldn’t Have Peaked: Rahu Phase Skip 2**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD-gHVlRQ_g

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167272679225692190/1167272679225692190](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167272679225692190/1167272679225692190)

Probably one of the hardest skips in the game to get consistently for beginner and even intermediate speedrunners - this one requires you to do some wallclimbing up some VERY awkward geometry but skips yet another 2 phases of You Shouldn’t Have Peaked

**Setting The Stage: Drain Skip/Water Basin Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpENtbtvQw4

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166883923876388894/1166883923876388894](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1166883923876388894/1166883923876388894)

The next evolution of the original Pipes Skip - skipping the Water Basin room entirely!

### **Day 3 (October 26th)**

**Elevator Maintenance: Pest Control Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOYY6yu3PU0

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167585055527411762/1167585055527411762](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167585055527411762/1167585055527411762)

In the intended route, you’re meant to clear out the elevator shaft of the Biter enemies, backtrack a bit, power up the elevator, and then go back to exit the level - however if you instead trigger the power from out of bounds and just avoid the biters you can skip all that.

**New World Record: [1:31:28](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/ywn3d72y) by @Blaidan**

After a couple days of the community finding, sharing, and learning strats, @Blaidan completes the first legitimate (no Trainer/practice tools) Any% speedrun, clocking in just over 90 minutes.

### **Day 4 (October 27th)**

**Something Lurks In The Sand: Start OOB Shortcut**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO8hkaidTgQ

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167899182330286180/1167899182330286180](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1167899182330286180/1167899182330286180)

Definitely the hardest skip in the game, even for the most experienced of speedrunners - this one is a big-time run killer. Thankfully, it only saves about 15-20s - so unless you’re going for world record it's not really necessary.

**New World Record: [1:20:04](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/zpp9ljnz) by @Blaidan**

### **Day 5 (October 28th)**

**Speedtech: Railboosting (Input Stacking)**

https://clips.twitch.tv/TardyRockyElkAllenHuhu-5tP39zOyG6w--3p5

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1168083074744070165/1168083074744070165](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1168083074744070165/1168083074744070165)

In Ghostrunner (and many 3D platformers) there is a system called Coyote Time. Essentially, the game gives you a 0.3s grace period after leaving a platform to input a jump. In Ghostrunner 2 specifically, there is an oversight that allows you to stack as many inputs as you can fit into that 0.3s, increasing your jump speed and distance.

**Can Anyone Hear Me?: Bike OOB Shortcut (Edge Bounce)**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAJeOI5HJ-E

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1168205950847569961/1168205950847569961](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1168205950847569961/1168205950847569961)

The geometry on the side of this building is really interesting and gives you a nice bounce if you hit it right. There are a few other variants of this skip that don’t require the bounce - but where’s the fun in that?

**New World Record: [1:10:03](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/mkqk863m) by @BladeLMAO**

Blade gets his first GR2 record, smashing the previous one by ALMOST ten minutes - just one second shy!

### **Day 6 (October 29th)**

There was a fair bit of testing on Day 6 in particular with Can Anyone Hear Me? and You Shouldn’t Have Peaked - but nothing major was found and no records were broken.

### **Day 7 (October 30th)**

**Elevator Maintenance: OOB Route 2.0 (Zumo + Blade)**

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1964584090

EM gets a new OOB route, shaving off another minute or so!

**New World Record: [1:07:53](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/zxw7d1gm) by @Blaidan**

Blaidan strikes back, lowering the record by another 2 minutes.

### **Day 8 (October 31st)**

**Elevator Maintenance: Tube Skip (OOB Route 3.0)**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6zU8RFW-7g

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169030921106767942/1169049163347017758](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169030921106767942/1169049163347017758)

The final (so far) iteration of the EM OOB route, now with minimal movement in between the required loading triggers for the level to progress properly. Surely more things will be found over time, but from the first route sitting around 5 minutes - this one is doable in just over 2!

**New World Record: [1:05:32](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/zqd74l9m) by @Blaidan**

### **Day 9 (November 1st)**

**Winds of the Desolate: 3rd Gate Bike Jump Skip[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTh79qRF4N8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTh79qRF4N8)**

Obsoleting the Rooftop version of this skip, @JanisSG and @Blaidan discovered you can ride the bike out slightly OOB to the left of the play area, and launch jack right onto the highway where you can safely DSJ to the checkpoint, respawning the bike.

**Hackers Den: OOB Shortcut**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAlKtjKRRb4

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169424646274297906/1169424646274297906](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169424646274297906/1169424646274297906)

By dashing backwards after passing through a doorway with very precise timing, you can get back through before the door closes and the previous area (you’re now standing in) deloads. This lets you take a much shorter route through OOB space to the first cybervoid.

**New World Record: [1:03:14](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/y6q0r1qz) by @Blaidan**

Blaidan continues lowering the record, inching closer and closer to the sub-hour mark!**Day 10 (November 2nd)**

**Behind The Curtain: Panda Skip**

https://clips.twitch.tv/CourageousSilkyFungusPogChamp-s6aL54XdM-hVNkF1

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169791428667392000/1169791428667392000](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1169791428667392000/1169791428667392000)

PandaInTheGame who does not consider themselves a speedrunner, managed to find a very fast strat in BTC! The community decided to name the trick Panda Skip, after its founder :)

### **Day 11 (November 3rd)**

Not many big new things were found on Day 11 - but @WiggleyWiggley posted a “backup strat” that ended up being slightly faster than the previously used strat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlvQ-GT_f0U

### **Day 12 (November 4th)**

**Will Bushido Allow It?: Ahriman Cheese**

https://clips.twitch.tv/FragileEasyOcelotCoolCat-Jw8tJmZHNNbqkOpu

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1170323187414876192/1170323187414876192](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1170323187414876192/1170323187414876192)

@7RayD discovered that by maneuvering in a specific way around Ahriman, you can keep him constantly spinning and unable to attack for the entirety of his third phase.

**New World Record: [1:01:08](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/znep3n9z) by @Blaidan**

Almost there!

### **Day 13 (November 5th)**

**Setting The Stage: Droneless Basin Skip**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-H9hieFGE0

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1170939684319404082/1170939684319404082](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1170939684319404082/1170939684319404082)

The final iteration (so far) of Basin Skip, now taking a more direct line through the OOB space just *narrowly* dodging a kill plane, and skipping the drone ride entirely.

### **Day 14 (November 6th)**

**New World Record: [59:41](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/yll7v82y) by @Blaidan**

Blaidan achieves the world's first sub-hour run, with a ridiculous sum of best sitting at 55:45!

### **Day 15 (November 7th)**

**Mindgames: Permanent Flow Booster**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYOCYq67oas

[Discussion: https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1144461454393753652/1171384092152053811](https://discord.com/channels/707647729043636276/1144461454393753652/1171384092152053811)

Finally, LonEliteNV finds a practical use for the Permanent Flow Booster glitch in runs!

**New World Record: [59:19](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/yoop337y) by @BladeLMAO**

**New World Record: [58:48](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/zg8pv50y) by @Pasiflora**

Blade and Pasi both get their own first sub-hour runs!

### **Day 16 (November 8th)**

The grind for top 3 (and top 10) went on all day on Day 16, but no new records were set.

### **Day 17 (November 9th)**

**New World Record: [57:12](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/zg8pvvvy) by @Blaidan**

**New World Record: [56:39](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2/runs/y2kpd1wy) by @Pasiflora**

On the final day - Pasiflora snags first place with the world's first 56!

I would like to congratulate everyone who participated and/or won a prize once again. I also want to say thank you to everyone who participated in runs, routing, glitch hunting, or just followed along. You made this challenge a truly memorable experience!

We recently hosted a $10,000 Speedrun Challenge for Ghostrunner 2 lasting two weeks, let's dive into how the run progressed!


Ghostrunner 2 $10k Challenge Highlights

Submissions for the **Indie Horror Speedruns Marathon 2023** are [now open!](https://oengus.io/marathon/ihsm23)

# ![](/static/blob/rz2kolz0.png)

# What is IHS?

IHS is a community of speedrunners who share a passion for pushing niche horror titles to their limits. From walking simulators like [Slide in the Woods](https://www.speedrun.com/slide_in_the_woods), FPS games like [Cultists & Compounds](https://www.speedrun.com/cultists_and_compounds), and more well-known titles like [Murder House](https://www.speedrun.com/murder_house) and [Choo-Choo Charles](https://www.speedrun.com/choo_choo_charles), there's a wide variety of games to explore and almost certainly a game for everyone. Many games run by the community are uploaded to itch.io, keeping speedrunning financially accessible to more people.

## Bounties

In addition to serving as a hub for new speedgame discoveries, the [IHS Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/NgmkbJr2MX) also is used to promote bounties placed on games hosted and sponsored by TurboBoard. Challenges range from new glitch discoveries, being the first to achieve a sub-X minute run, to solving questions or glitches a community member might have. There's currently [a $300 reward to discover the mystery of the collision on a door in Happy's Humble Burger Farm](https://turboboard.io/bounty/VdprVJ8ijavu78cSCzrKf).

# ![](/static/blob/pzm6lwnk.jpg)

# Previous Events

In addition to smaller showcases and bounties over the past year, the IHS community has been involved in two major events.

## IHSM 2022

As stated previously, this is the second major marathon the IHS community has hosted. It kicked off in December of last year and ran for a full 12 hours, showcasing 18 runs as well as a two-hour quad-campaign relay of Aliens vs Predator 2.

## ![](/static/blob/yzr6xmz4.png)

# SGDQ 2023 - Choo-Choo Charles

Choo-Choo Charles brought a massive amount of new runners to the community upon its release, including high-profile runners such as @Distortion2 and @maxylobes. The community even was [shouted out by the developer himself](https://twitter.com/TwoStarGames/status/1603131654620315648).

Given the hype surrounding its release, it shouldn't have been a surprise that it was accepted into SGDQ2022. Runner @Bird650 represented the community by achieving an 18:47 RTA.

## ![](/static/blob/rz2ko8z0.png)

# Puppet Combo Speedrun Showcase 2023

This past summer, the community held a nearly five-hour speedrun showcase featuring games from the TortureStar publishing label. Games from [Puppet Combo](https://twitter.com/PuppetCombo), [Comp-3 Interactive](https://twitter.com/comp3int), and [Black Eyed Priest Games](https://twitter.com/LeggoMyGiallo) were all run. Playlist to all the runs can be found [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9S_8eztoAYv7r3CsEl772Iy0TxVueU3u).

# IHSM 2023 Event Details

Submit your runs [here](https://oengus.io/marathon/ihsm23).

IHSM 2023 submissions are open now! It's not too late to start learning a run between now and the submission cutoff of October 31. The marathon itself is live on November 18th. [Here's a link to last year's runs](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9S_8eztoAYuVGxzUpDCbz-zhTuA_ptpc)!

Even though the word "indie" is on everything surrounding this community and event, it needs to be said that submissions do not need to be indie games. As stated below, "submissions are required to be horror-genre centered or contain horror elements," though final decisions will be up to the IHS staff team.

# Relevant Links and Rules

Event questions can be answered by joining the [IHS Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/NgmkbJr2MX).

The event is sponsored by [TurboBoard](https://turboboard.io/), [MusicMondays](https://www.allmusicmondays.com/), and [HAIRYWORLD](https://twitter.com/HAIRYWRLD)

Linktree for all things IHS can be found [here](https://linktr.ee/indiehorrorspeedruns).

Organizers are hoping that this event is as fun as the first. The community has grown tremendously over the years and this marathon is a great way to get involved with a friendly and accessible community.

Indie Horror Speedruns Marathon 2023 Submissions Open Now

In your time amongst the speedrunning community, you may or may not have heard the term Holy Grail. It's not a sacred chalice or a mystical artifact, but rather a term that describes a discovery so profound that it etches itself into the annals of gaming history. A Holy Grail is the stuff of legends, a theory or proof of concept that, if realized, would send shockwaves through the speedrunning community. You may or may not have heard of a little thing called Barrier Skip in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - that is a holy grail skip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hUIp3eUyKI

In the last few weeks, Super Mario 64 has finally received its own Holy Grail - one with a rich history dating back 14 years or more. In the heart of the Super Mario 64 speedrunning universe lies the pursuit of **Carpetless**, the elusive final auto-scroller skip that has tantalized speedrunners for over a decade.

![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C9UmsQgpLU5CPAtVw5aYrh.jpg)

First of all, let me thank both @simply and @KrobarKrolak for making videos that provided me with the majority of this information, I highly recommend you watch both of them as they will go into much more detail than I will here. (See **Sources** at the bottom of the article)

# The Big House in the Sky Autoscroller

"The Big House in the Sky" (TBHiS) star presents a common annoyance for speedrunners - an autoscroller section. There are multiple autoscrollers in SM64, but every single other one of them has been skippable for years at this point, which left TBHiS as the only remaining autoscroller in the 120 Star speedrun route. The autoscroller consisted of getting on a magic carpet that would carry you to the final star at the top of the big house, [taking an annoying 1m45s (roughly) to do so](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bkHWWbGDKg&t=5405s). For years, runners looked for a way to skip the carpet ride (thus the title, Carpetless), finding a few leads but nothing RTA viable. The speedrunning community never gave up though, continually pushing the boundaries of what was possible.

**Let’s go over some quick highlights of the last 14 years of Carpetless.**

## Blazesoul13's Early Experimentation

In April 2009, runner blazesoul13 finds a glitchy wallkick on the side of the Big House, which *almost* reaches the roof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZU3RgNtfts

# Early TAS Discoveries

In December 2009, the first breakthrough came when a TAS (Tool-Assisted Speedrun) setup was developed by Mario64Masters, which utilized hyperspeed wallkicks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDbXNkT0Tk?t=2

# Snark122's Bomb Setup

In January 2013, snark122 showcased the first carpetless setup that hinted at the possibility of skipping the autoscroller in real-time speedruns. Though technically possible, it remained ridiculously unrealistic to do in runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV9MV13w2U8

# BLJs and Parallel Universes

It wasn't until 2017 that Maria Nicolae, Plush, & Luigihaxd introduced a new (still TAS only) setup that used Backward Long Jumps (BLJ’s) to send Mario into actual Parallel Universes to do Carpetless. To learn more about Parallel Universes, I highly recommend watching this video from Bismuth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjge1bVobN0?t=720

# Toadfan5's Save State Breakthrough

In July 2015, toadfan5 made a significant stride by successfully executing Carpetless using save states.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcRN195iS1w

# Xiah Does Carpetless Single Segment

In May 2019, Xiah achieved what seemed nearly impossible – successfully using the bomb setup to skip the autoscroller without relying on save states. This breakthrough was a testament to the dedication and perseverance of SM64 speedrunners, and was a turning point for the community - people started taking RTA Carpetless a lot more seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcD0qzkgcw

# Circumark994 Spends 3 Weeks On Carpetless Research

On April 22nd, 2023 Circumark994 released this 30-minute video breaking down all of the current leads for Carpetless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7g6PQtNIkA

# Parsee Hits Bomb Setup in a 120* Run

On September 17th, 2023, [runner Parsee hit snark122’s Bomb Setup (also known simply as OG Carpetless) in a full 120 star speedrun.](https://twitter.com/parsee02/status/1703449072370319705)

# Krithalith's Innovative Discovery

Also on September 17th, 2023 mere *hours* after Parsee hit the bomb setup - TASer Krithalith premiered a groundbreaking setup discovery for carpetless. This new setup was based on Blazesoul13’s original glitchy wallkick discovery back in 2009 - and while still incredibly inconsistent, runners like @simply, @Suigi, and more were still able to hit Carpetless multiple times in a single (multi-hour) session. However, the balance of intense difficulty and viability for runs [actually seemed to demotivate runners like Suigi](https://twitter.com/GreenSuigi/status/1703765302461260045) - since it was technically possible to get a new world record with, but ridiculously inconsistent.

## Orthogonal Jones Setup

Just two days after the initial discovery, Krithalith released the ["Orthogonal Jones" setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbPAJ_OrT28) on September 19th.  This setup removed a lot of the complexities and achieved Krithalith’s goal of a setup that required fewer inputs. There are lots of other setups, mainly including ["Orthogonal James"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM6GxiTuFt8) also from Krithalith, and [Dezanig’s setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlP5Pkg8yL4) - but most run attempts for both full 120 star and single star are currently using Orthogonal Jones.

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/s7A9OK-Ee4Kl_q1c5OdYOq_XL9VrOKuHqyzW5AjGPhLdiHNR1-9n1nyuwPUyl90UiFuvLFVih3pk24kgusKVPkv2F_OzpGnRzRviHnPEKzKJynqPlB55KABbwLDUgXJkzr1toNWZL3mxH1TOa1a1UcE)

This setup, based on cardinal directions (neutral, straight up, straight right, etc.), **significantly** increased consistency and made the Carpetless challenge more accessible to speedrunners - so much so that Suigi released a video doing Carpetless *11 times in a* **ROW.**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StUh5pRNiBs

# Conclusion

In the ever-evolving world of SM64 speedrunning, the pursuit of RTA viable Carpetless has brought forth not only innovation - but proof of the unwavering commitment from the community. At the time of writing this article, no new world record has been achieved - but it’s merely a matter of time before the next (and perhaps the final) minute barrier is broken for the Super Mario 64 120 Star category.

Krithalith’s groundbreaking discovery, backed by early experimentations by people like blazesoul13, snark, Maria Nicolae, toadfan5, Xiah, parsee, and many more has allowed SM64 speedrunners to save almost a minute (around 45 seconds on average) in the 120 Star category.

To put it into perspective, top runners have been known to grind for hours to practice timesaves that are less than a second - and *that's* why Carpetless is a Holy Grail skip.

If you’re interested, you can find [the current Single Star World Record for The Big House in the Sky here](https://www.singlestar.sm64rta.info/individual?stage=RR&star=2).

I would also like to give a heartfelt thank you to Krithalith, seven, Zinsch, ded_lej, and the rest of [the SM64 Speedrunning Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/0Si1OtnB7Ylmwkwr) for helping me fact-check my information - you guys are the best!

# Sources:

[The Biggest SM64 Speedrun Discovery Just Happened by @Simply](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2hzYmL2AkQ)

[The History of Carpetless: Super Mario 64’s HARDEST Speedrunning Trick by @KrobarKrolak](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARz3Fc-3blo)

[RR Carpetless Research by Circumark994](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7g6PQtNIkA)

![](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000482010774-fks9pk-t500x500.jpg)

A consistent setup for the Holy Grail Skip of SM64 was just discovered - lets dig in.

The Holy Grail of SM64 - Carpetless

Released on August 18th, Team Reptile’s [Bomb Rush Cyberfunk](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1353230/Bomb_Rush_Cyberfunk/) (BRC) took the internet by storm with its flashy visual style, 3D platformer flare, and amazing soundtrack. The game, heavily inspired by the likes of Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, tasks the player with going through the city of New Amsterdam to go “All City”.

![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9HKDfO51Ja4/maxresdefault.jpg)

With 5 story chapters, each one facing an opposing street crew, the early Any% runs saw players spraying graffiti with very little more. However, runners soon found the most important tech in the run, with a trick known as the zip even catching the eyes of casual players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMCxRI7k_v0

Zips were immediately tested, and many unique use cases were found. Be it basic movement or huge skips, they proved to be important aspects of the run. One of the biggest skips was found just 3 days into the game’s life.

Chapter 5 of BRC finds you facing the crew Futurism. However, it was discovered by @ZumoDePapaya that the story trigger to start the final boss sequence is always active far away into Mataan, the final level. Using zips, it was found to be possible to get to this trigger from the very start of the chapter. This was a *20 minute timesave*, skipping a ton of story content. A setup was soon found after by @Xyphles, Zumo, and I.

[https://twitter.com/shovelclaws/status/1693788196927058038](https://twitter.com/shovelclaws/status/1693788196927058038)

This skip showed the true potential for zips, and began the search for more skips. Soon, the community found ways to enter the mall early in chapter 3, skip the last half of the prologue, and beyond.

The game had taken off, but the record stood at 1:16:53 by @JackieNewguy and then 1:16:48 by @kitcarson. How did the run get so much shorter? Well, some help from the developers over at Team Reptile helped out. They updated the game, and in the patch came a change that saved 7 minutes: cutscenes that could be skipped would be skipped 3 seconds faster.

On top of this cutscene skip change, a new skip was made real by a change in a respawn trigger. At the start of Chapter 4, the game wants you to find the Flesh Prince to provide some medical attention to the main character. Afterwards, you’d be off to Pyramid Island to fight against Devil Theory, the fourth crew.

Patch 1.0.19864 changed a respawn trigger on Pyramid Island, which allowed us to entirely skip the Flesh Prince sequence by voiding out as we loaded into the Pyramid Island docks. If done correctly, you’d respawn on the island, and the story would play out as normal. These two tricks instantly dropped the record to a 1:07:08.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9bRNNAOs9Q?t=2961

The community rallied, with the sub hour in sight. Following a ton of graffiti reroutes, new skips such as [Nightmare 1](https://youtu.be/yRXQkNx99KQ), [Nightmare 2](https://youtu.be/5w0Fhp0VgbI?t=2668), and [Baseball](https://youtu.be/Oj5JiGa70uo), and movement optimization, the community quickly closed in, with records dropping minutes by the day.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9edfdggIPWsVIX6y9MZT1W5gYm1O427af21m1bpyX7a27j5pMt16MhnejIcmiCjGWovo6fekY56i6954J0D4PYeyo8gtaO-087_AIM0S_Fc1c53R8_85Kl5jLbQPHBSn8padUTt39VocchwENSPYXfM)

Finally, the bullet that allowed sub-hour hit BRC when user @Ninja_cookie discovered a skip that allowed us to skip a multiple-minute section of the early game. In order to skip the prologue, runners used an out-of-bounds to hit a level transition trigger. It was found that if you hit the trigger and paused at *the same time* (frame-precise), you’d load into the next level.

https://clips.twitch.tv/CuteGoldenJackalOneHand--iVazaN17iYVnFKm

This instantly gave runners the boost they needed, and @kitcarson, @Storied, and @ItzBytez would race to get the sub hour first.

Then, on September 6th, Storied would tap against the glass with a time of 1:00:32. kitcarson would post his own cursed run, clocking in with a time of 1:00:10. Bytez would get the closest, with a run with a final time of *1 hour exactly*. Tensions were high and the community was eager to see who would close out the race.

And then, Bytez claimed the crown, grabbing himself a 58:37 just under 24 hours after his cursed run. Not only did Bytez get sub hour, but he skipped past the 59 minute barrier. However, he wouldn’t be alone for long: not even 15 minutes later, Storied would nab the world record back with a 57:20. But even kitcarson wouldn’t be out of the sub hour club for long, posting a 59:06 within 2 hours of Bytez and Storied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJmdnr5AhLA

What had been a race to sub hour ended with the three of them coming out winners, all having the sub hour back-to-back. The community, waking up hours later, buzzed with excitement as our eyes set themself on the 50 minute barrier.

Since the sub hour, the community has left no stone unturned searching for new ways to break the game. A recent discovery, @Ninja_Cookie found a new way to zip called Zip Storage that allowed them to be done faster, easier, and more frequently: the 3 things that matter most to us! This new discovery turned some of the absolute hardest skips into easy skips with simple setups at the top level. It also allowed zips to be more ingrained into the basic movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2vFkkdxfGo

After so many people dedicated so much hard work and time to breaking this game, the [world record currently sits at 51:34 by Bytez](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEaSxlAAFXc), with [Storied just 2 seconds behind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eW2aS6RrW0). Sum of bests have recently gone under 50 minutes, and as of September 26th, the *entire top 10* is composed of runners with times under 1 hour.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Bli9neFklOSJ2g1Z5N2mPsD5glrzmuI8-IdtE0_Dz24L0KbL3Q4LNoIGPJnWdk9ajyrHdKvsgk187Z4vRhw38_-LkI8AjkZ-9jjOOX9fABrwzfM3xRMpvrZkLt_02IWbVMQ5BnjKmpkX-C0LEhjdZms)

What started as a highly anticipated release, and a day 2 record of 2:34:46, has turned into one of the greatest speedruns of the year. In the wise words of community moderator @Helix, “BRC feels like it progresses a month in a week.”

With Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 around the corner, which Bytez and Storied have both submitted to, the future is looking bright for this newly released title.

If this short history lesson has you interested in the game, you can join the Discord here: [https://discord.com/invite/EWCfbJDrh4](https://discord.com/invite/EWCfbJDrh4).

A short history of the futuristic street-culture platformer released in August

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Community Races Towards 50 Minute Barrier

Thanks to a fellow runner @LeonSReckon we now have an autosplitter for PC version of Gears of War. This autosplitter will cut out load times and help keep an even playing field for all PC runners, regardless of hardware. We hope more players will get on the game and try it out!

![](/static/blob/rz2mwln0.png)

Everything you need to pick up the run is in resource and guides section on the leaderboard. We are always looking for more runners to join the community - it's quite small for the franchise.

Runner @LeonSReckon has made an autosplitter for the game. Helping players to cut out the cutscene loads and parts for a more accurate time.

Autosplitter for Gears of War

The Dead Space series strikes fear and adrenaline into the hearts of its players, and with [rumors of a reboot to the series](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/eas-ip-revival-is-reportedly-a-dead-space-reimagining/) as well as Dead Space premiering at Summer Games Done Quick — now is a very special time for Dead Space speedrunners.

Dead Space is a little over an hour of brutally challenging tricks and skips, coming together to form an incredibly difficult (and satisfying) run. With the help of [Looney](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Looney), let’s dive into the tech that broke Dead Space wide open: Pulse Boosting.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz08xnl.jpg)

## What is Pulse Boosting?

Pulse Boosting is a trick that abuses the Pulse Rifles alternate fire mode which allows the main character, Isaac, to go flying, skipping large portions of the game. Pulse Boosting was [found September 2020](https://youtu.be/CXVyV1Ojj0w?t=26) by [r3sus](https://www.speedrun.com/user/r3sus), the contributor to many different strats for Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 2.

## How does it work?

In Dead Space, weapons collide with the game world. You can see this yourself by simply walking up to a wall and aiming, the game will push you away slightly. This was likely implemented during development to prevent you from shooting at or interacting with things on the other side of the wall — which funnily enough you *can* still do [with some ingenuity](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0?t=915).

So that’s step one of the trick, for step two we’ll need the trick's namesake,  the Pulse Rifle. The Pulse Rifle has an alternate firing mode where Isaac crouches down and fires the rifle 360 degrees around him. If you aim into a wall and on the same frame perform the alternate fire of the Pulse Rifle, the game will [shoot you away with a massive amount of speed.](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0?t=3237) Runners make the [setup for this trick](https://youtu.be/CLTCdk7LRWI) much easier by unbinding “stomp,” which otherwise would interfere with the boost. Then all they need to do is hold the spacebar and aim into the wall, buffering the alternate fire so it triggers the first frame you aim every time with ease.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzw18nq.jpg)*[Source](https://youtu.be/CLTCdk7LRWI)*

Of course, even with the inputs being made a lot easier, that doesn’t make the trick easy at all. Making Isaac actually do the boost is the easy thing, but getting him where he needs to be is a whole other thing. The boost can be affected by Isaac’s starting animation, as well as the frame in that animation, framerate, angle, among other things, it’s certainly no easy trick.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/oxzd1vzm.jpg)*[Source](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0)*

## Honorable Mentions

### [Isaac Tilting](https://youtu.be/aelh6pIzERM?t=178)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/y1n54ke3.jpg)This physics-defying trick is done by transitioning out of a zero g zone while meleeing, which makes the game think you’re still in zero g. Because of that, the game still sticks you to surfaces and tilts the game world around you as if you were still in zero g, tilting Isaac. This can be used in strategic places to skip [fights](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0?t=761) or [elevators](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1046244740?t=00h55m18s).

### [Elevator Warp](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0?t=3827)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/l1n7l9e5.jpg)

Using nothing but a table and an elevator, runners can skip a huge chunk of chapter 10 - the biggest single skip in the run.

### [Zero G Jump](https://youtu.be/G1nqodtvqs0?t=3544)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/97n69mnq.jpg)A tiny little hole in the zero gravity area of Chapter 9 allows runners to take the effect from zero gravity for *the rest of the level*, even in areas out of bounds. This trick has some… *interesting* effects, [as you can see.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1046244740?t=01h20m47s)

## Games Done Quick

After everything was said and done, Pulse Boosting managed to chop off *a little over an* ***hour*** — essentially slicing the run right in half.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/7rnq7wej.jpg)If you’re eager for more Dead Space, Looney will be running Any% with commentary from [Waifu](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Waifu) and [Sharkhat](https://www.speedrun.com/user/sharkhat). The event started **Sunday, July 4th**, and Looney’s run takes place on **July 6th**. If you’re interested in watching, keep an eye on the [schedule](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule) as it tends to shift around.

I hope you’re excited for GDQ because I, sure as hell, am.

Ahead of Dead Space's debut at SGDQ, let's take a look at the tech that allowed speedrunners to reduce their run times by half.

How Dead Space Speedrunners cut their runs in half

Ports of a game to a new platform can breathe new life into its community if it’s done well. 

Playstation has recently been re-releasing a lot of their previously console-exclusive titles to the PC, meaning the speedrunners of these titles have experienced quite a few changes to the game they're used to. 



The latest Playstation title to be ported to the PC is [Days Gone](https://www.speedrun.com/days_gone). Let’s take a look at what's happened inside the Days Gone speedrunning community since the release.



## New Activity



The re-release of Days Gone not only brought excitement to the previous runners who played on the Playstation, but also introduced the game to runners on the PC who otherwise would’ve never even had a chance to play the game. New runners in a speedgame are always useful, because having a fresh pair of eyes looking for better routes and new strats almost always leads to new timesave, especially in a smaller community like the Days Gone Speedrunning community.



## Timing Method



Aside from the changes inside the game due to routing or strat discoveries, the introduction to the PC platform brings some other quality of life things. Because PC users have access to tools like Cheat Engine. which can read game memory, custom scripts can be made to remove loading times. This helps keep competition on different hardware on a level playing field. It’s also possible to create functionality in this script to split automatically, meaning runners don’t really need to touch their LiveSplit much at all and instead focus entirely on the run. Autosplitting is a very nice quality of life change, especially considering the full game of Days Gone takes *between 8 and 10* ***hours***.



## Category Discussion



So yeah - as of the writing of this article the world record for the full game of Days Gone is [8:11:10](https://www.speedrun.com/days_gone/run/zxg83rky) by [Matt_The_Ogre](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Matt_the_ogre) - an incredible feat considering the staggering amount of content to mow through in Days Gone, but a great test of endurance nonetheless. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r7z389nd.png)

Because the Any% category is so long, it was recently decided that there would be shorter segments of the game added as categories. The first of these segments is the [Lost Lake](https://www.speedrun.com/days_gone/full_game#Lost_Lake) category, which has you playing through just the first act of the game as fast as possible. The creation of these shorter categories has been revolutionary so far, and shows an exciting future for Days Gone speedrunning. Not only is a shorter category easier to manage for the average runner, it’s allowed for runners to focus more on specific routing and optimizations. Right around the launch of the PC release, the fastest time known for Lost Lake was just above the 2 hour mark by Hess. Since then, runners like [Hess](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Hess), [Matt_The_Ogre](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Matt_the_ogre), and [IEKevin](https://www.speedrun.com/user/IE-Kevin) have been optimizing the category finding further optimizations allowing Kevin to get a blazing time of [1:37](https://www.speedrun.com/days_gone/run/mkgd5kxy). If this level of optimization can be done for the rest of the segments in Days Gone, we could potentially see the full game run dropped below the 7 hour mark -  a time cut of over 10%

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2qnyg3np.jpg)

Note: The previously mentioned 2-hour time by Hess was never submitted to the leaderboard.



## New Discoveries



Of course, routing optimization is incredibly useful in shaving off time, but you know what’s even more useful? Abusing the game's cover system and a little ingenuity to fly through the air like a majestic eagle — [skipping entire sections of travel in mere seconds](https://youtu.be/n9TcLiKqKPE). 



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r1n83wzq.jpg)[This trick was discovered by NoScopeFrog](https://youtu.be/ZbeO_AZbFm4) on May 27, 2021, dubbing it the “Frog Jump”. Depending on your setup, you can take this trick anywhere from a couple of hundred meters to [over 30 kilometers](https://youtu.be/6PaAbhX_1Y0).



Of course, this is a *very* new discovery, and its full potential has yet to be uncovered, considering there have only been a handful of spots found where it can be used. 



That said, if even just a few more spots could be found, the potential of this trick grows exponentially. Considering you can fly pretty much any distance, even across the entirety of the game world, the major restriction at this time is finding spots with good angles. 



Theoretically, finding some Frog Jump setups at places we can fast travel to and then boost anywhere on the map would cut out nearly 75% of travel time from the entirety of the run. Not to mention, if we find a way to boost to later sections of the game from the beginning, we’re talking about shaving off *hours* from the run rather than minutes. The possibilities of the future of this discovery are incredibly exciting.





## Conclusion



Even with just a few runners, the future of Days Gone speedrunning seems *very* promising. If you don’t think you can stomach the endurance test of an 8-hour speedrun, I definitely recommend checking out some of the shorter categories. If you fancy yourself to be a handy glitch hunter, this game seems to be on the verge of some massive timesave, maybe you could be the one to discover the next big find. If you’re looking to join the Days Gone speedrunning community, you can join their [Discord server here!](https://discord.gg/dYnQ5BH) 



A PC port for Days Gone was recently released. Let's take a look at what impact a port has on the game's speedrunning community.