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

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

MoistCr1tikal has returned with his highly-anticipated third $10,000 speedrun challenge after a three-month hiatus. If you're new to the challenge, here's what you need to know: Following the success of his first challenge, Cr1tikal announced that he planned to make it a regular event, with a monthly occurrence if possible. He also revealed that in each challenge, $1,000 would be awarded to the person who discovered the most impactful glitch, in addition to the $10,000 prize split among the top three runners at the end of the two-week period. That means first place takes home $6,000, second place gets $2,500, and third place receives $1,500.

## The game

The selection process appears to have been quite challenging, which explains the lengthy gap between challenges. [Here’s what Cr1tikal had to say:](https://youtu.be/5Ht3biCKD8Y?t=330)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzrme4d.jpg)

“*When we did Exodus from the Earth (EFTE) as our second one, I don't think we realized just how good of a speedgame it turned out to be and I don't like going backwards. So like, Exodus from the Earth was amazing - I wouldn't want to just choose another stinker kind of like Amok Runner was.*” (The game from the first challenge) -MoistCr1tikal

This brings us to game number 3, The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard! TESAR is an action/adventure game much like the others in the famous Elder Scrolls series, however, this one is unique in that it’s the only title where you play as a pre-determined character (Cyrus the Redguard) with a forced third-person perspective.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5ngkzqp.jpg)

Similar to EFTE, before the challenge was announced TESAR had just one runner - [Solitaan](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Solitaan). In 2018, Solitaan themselves managed to bring down the record from nearly 3 hours to [just under 2 hours](https://www.speedrun.com/the_elder_scrolls_adventures_redguard/run/mr84kkgy) with a few new skips and much better gameplay, with the idea that a time of 1:55:00 should be doable with the route at the time.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9qzpwe3v.jpg)

## The skip(s)

Fast forward to the announcement of the challenge yesterday, May 3rd, 2023. Cr1tikal’s [announcement video](https://youtu.be/5Ht3biCKD8Y) gets 1,300,000 views in less than 24 hours and almost 2000 new members join the Challenge Discord.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e15n02.jpg)

With this kind of exposure, it was only a matter of time before some serious tech was discovered.

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

Around 3pm EDT (just one hour after the announcement of the challenge), top contender from previous challenges [Zach](https://www.speedrun.com/user/zach) discovered that you were able to [clip through objects when getting attacked by enemies.](https://clips.twitch.tv/MistyBeautifulChinchillaOSkomodo--HGt39Zjs4j1cd_J) Nothing could make use of this yet, but the day was only just getting started.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ek5exp.jpg)

Many other new small skips were found, and even [one that was confirmed to save around 35 minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaVNQfyAyTM) by [Gizmovor](https://www.speedrun.com/user/gizmovor) which was found at 7pm EDT.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz01el0.jpg)

However, between 8:34 and 8:46pm EDT glitch hunter [ontrigger](/users/ontrigger) posted these messages, sharing screenshots of the final boss.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzwjnq1.jpg)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/oxzd9nmq.jpg)

As it turns out, [ontrigger](https://www.speedrun.com/user/ontrigger) had found an incredible spot to use the enemy clipping method from [Zach](https://www.speedrun.com/user/zach) - one that would cut the 2-hour run down to just 15 minutes.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/y1n5ve3v.jpg)

In the old 2-hour route, players had to visit different locations to collect resources such as gold or key items. The primary goal was to obtain N'Gasta's Amulet and deliver it to Governor Richton at the Palace. However, after handing over the amulet, Richton betrays the player and sends his guards after them. This event leads to the player spending the majority of the rest of the game trying to get back to the Palace to seek revenge on Richton.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/l1n75z5r.jpg)


In the new route, with ontrigger’s clip, you simply need to clip through a door next to Richton in the Palace and the game allows you to pick up the rest of the main questline from that point - **saving a whopping 1.5 hours.**

Here’s the first recorded successful clip from [mickyyyr](https://www.speedrun.com/user/mickyyyr)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/97n6xnqm.gif)

For audio, [watch the Twitch clip here](https://clips.twitch.tv/NimbleClearWombatBlargNaut-9MANWJD8P9prilWm)

Runner and glitch hunter [SabulineHorizon](https://www.speedrun.com/user/SabulineHorizon) would also find [a faster, easier, and more consistent setup for this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovnCE6K108o) by 10:30pm EDT in the same night.

As of now, I am writing this just 25 hours after the announcement of the challenge and this is what the leaderboard looks like - with plenty more runs still awaiting verification!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/67e95z1o.jpg)

And here’s a sneak peek at the “History” feature with TESAR WR’s! History will enter beta in a future update ;) [Note: This will not replace WR History charts]

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3ynl3n6o.jpg)

With such impactful activity on this leaderboard in the last 25 hours - who knows what the next 13 days of the challenge will look like?

Big thanks to a bunch of the people in the Challenge Discord who helped me sort out information and make sure this article was as accurate as possible! Huge thanks to Ellie, Artemis, ChristianRoyle, BobToad, CreamSock, ZumoDePapaya, Letanda, and the rest of the Challenge Discord! You are all absolute legends :)

MoistCr1tikal has returned with his highly-anticipated third $10,000 speedrun challenge after a three-month hiatus.

Cr1tikal's third $10K challenge shaken up by 1.5 hour skip on day 1

The challenge lasted two weeks, with a promise of an extension if anybody was caught hiding run-changing strats, and so runners flocked to Amok Runner in droves hoping to claim prize money - or just to participate in a fun community event! ![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e1dve0.jpg)



After the challenge was over, Moist announced that this wasn’t just a one time thing but rather a **monthly** occurrence. He also mentioned that the next challenge would award $1000 to the person who finds the most impactful glitch (separate from the other $10,000 ) and that any following challenges will split the $10,000 among the top 3 runners when the two weeks is up. That means $6,000 to first place, $2,500 to second place, and $1,500 to third place.



If you want to catch up from the previous challenge, I recommend you check out Moist’s [History of My $10,000 Speedrun Challenge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFY1bUHBKfI).



Now that a month has passed, Moist [announced the latest challenge](https://youtu.be/5c7OK3xmGpE) just yesterday and already runners from all areas of the speedrunning scene are taking it upon themselves to learn the new challenge speedgame [Exodus from the Earth](https://store.steampowered.com/app/12390/Exodus_from_the_Earth) - a first-person shooter from 2007.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzwlyeq.jpg)Before the challenge came along, there was just one runner of the game - [deluxyze](https://www.speedrun.com/user/deluxyze). Deluxyze had already brought the game down to just above the hour mark, from a roughly 5 to 6 hour casual playthrough with a solid amount of tricks and combat optimizations - although even he claimed that the time could go much lower because there were some tricks he didn't include in that run.

 ![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz0w0nl.jpg)



Now seeing as we’re still only on what is essentially day one of the challenge not many runners have actually finished learning the run yet, but by taking a look at all the streams of people learning the speedrun on Twitch I think it’s safe to safe this leaderboard is going to absolutely **explode** with runs in the coming days. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/oxzd3qnm.jpg)

Even taking a look at the Exodus Discord voice channels, we can see 30+ people who have gathered to learn the run or glitch hunt together.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/y1n5vme3.jpg)While in the middle of writing this very article, speedrunner [spicee](https://www.speedrun.com/user/spiceeTV) managed to get an incredible run of 56:08 LRT / 59:16 RTA. The very first sub hour in the game in the 16 years since its release. 



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/l1n7x0e5.jpg)

While this is only the second challenge hosted by Moist, it’s already possible to see the effect it's having on the entire speedrunning scene, uniting runners from all different kinds of speedgames, and introducing new people who’ve never been exposed to speedrunning before now - and that’s truly a beautiful thing to witness.

If you’d like to follow the challenge over the next two weeks, you can see all the verified runs over at [Speedrun.com/EFTE](https://www.speedrun.com/efte) or watch runners compete live at [TheRun.gg/Moist.](https://therun.gg/moist)



At the end of last year MoistCr1tikal hit the speedrunning community with some huge news, announcing a $10,000 speedrun challenge for a game almost no one had ever heard of before - its time for round 2.

MoistCr1tikal Announced Yet Another $10k Speedrun Challenge

[Kanno](https://www.speedrun.com/user/KANNO) broke the 6m30s barrier this past Friday, August 6th in the wee hours of the morning making Super Mario 64 history once again, sneaking in just under the wire with a [6:29.950](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1109747627)



So what made this feat possible? Let’s take a dive into the details of Kanno’s most recent SM64 world record.



## A True Classic



Super Mario 64 is one of those classic speedgames that’s been around forever and yet is still somehow being optimized. It really goes to show speedrunners will always find a way. 



Japanese speedrunner Kanno has been optimizing all the short categories for the past three years and has gotten so incredibly skilled at the categories that he has a *full* ***sweep*** including the 0 Star, 1 Star, and 16 Star world records — with 0 Star being the “Any%” category in SM64.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e1yme0.jpg)Kanno’s execution in this run was incredible, near perfect even. Overall, his movement was impeccable but there are two things to highlight from this run that stand out above everything else; getting the fastest version of the Dire Dire Docks skip, and the KASLJ short for the **Kanno Tool Assisted Speedrun Long Jump**.



## DDD Skip

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qoeoj4ng.jpg)

Dire Dire Docks Skip is the oh-so-difficult skip that separates the 0 Star category from the 1 Star category, and there are multiple setups for it. The main variation in setups is the speed required to clip through the door, and Kanno’s setup requires the least amount of speed out of all of them - making it the fastest. You can view a [comparison of the setups here](https://youtu.be/vvu40CTOLos)



## KASLJ

KASLJ is [Kanno’s newer setup for the TASLJ](https://youtu.be/fmJCWHs36P4) (Tool-Assisted Long Jump) which is about one third of a second slower than the TASLJ, but a **lot** more consistent, making it much more human viable to its Tool-Assisted counterpart — and faster than any other strat by over a second.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ekprzx.jpg)## An Electric Fire Sea

Of course, with everything that went right in this run, that’s not to say it wasn’t without its hiccups. There’s a little bit of RNG with the Amp obstacles in Bowser in the Fire Sea and unfortunately, this RNG was not in Kanno’s favor this time around - losing him 2 seconds to bonking on the Amp, locking him in the zap animation.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz0yxel.jpg)

## Star Door BLJs



In the 0 Star route, runners use Backwards Long Jumps (BLJs) to clip through doors and Kanno mentioned that his BLJs were not the best, losing another 2 seconds to the optimal route. These two things were the only things Kanno mentioned as hiccups for the 6:29 speedrun, which honestly is pretty good when you consider that 2 out of the 4 seconds time loss came down to RNG. Kanno says that his next goal is a 6:25, which would've been this run if not for those 4 seconds lost to the RNG and BLJs.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzww8zq.jpg)

## Tracking Progress



Once again massive congratulations to Kanno for making SM64 history by becoming the first person in the world to beat the game in under six and a half minutes. Also a massive thank you to Kanno from me, for helping me out with the research for this article — I couldn’t have done it otherwise. 



If you’d like to follow Kanno's progress in the journey towards the goal of the 6:25 speedrun for 0 Star in Super Mario 64, you can do so on [his Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/kanno) or keep an eye on [his Youtube channel!](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04k2wolWHbXUYKqUQhohkg)



Kanno made history by breaking the 6:30 barrier in Super Mario 64. Let's take a look at how this impressive feat was possible.

Kanno breaks the Super Mario 64 6:30 Barrier

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

If you’ve never seen a [DOOM 2016](https://www.speedrun.com/d2016) speedrun before, you might not know just how broken the game can be. I’m talking *absolutely* **totally** busted but in the best way possible. [DOOM 2016 Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/d2016/run/yd9nopxz) is the category that goes absolutely ham. Bouncing off of rails to [reach the stratosphere](https://youtu.be/__198NZIHQU?t=50) and showing the demons you mean business with gruesome Glory Kills [that let you phase through walls](https://youtu.be/pZji9Asa4Tc) are just two things that Any% contains in the all-out battle to reach the end credits of the game as fast as humanly possible - skipping the majority of the game with one difficult trick after another. However, there was one theoretical skip that no runner could figure out. The second room of the game held the Praetor Suit and an accompanying introductory cutscene, and runners wanted nothing more than to skip it - this is the story behind the events leading up to the discovery of Intro Skip.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0wzxjder.jpg)

# The Holy Grail Skip

As the weeks, months, and years went on and segment after segment of DOOM’s 13 level campaign was getting completely skipped, runners were attempting to find a way to skip this rather tedious cutscene they were watching nearly every attempt. This theoretical Holy Grail of a skip was given the title of “Intro Skip.” The idea was that if you were somehow able to clip out of either the first or second room, you would be able to move on with the level having never watched the Intro Cutscene.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qrz24ln0.jpg)

Very shortly after the game launched, it was discovered that you could use the “Glory Kill” mechanic to clip through walls and floors. This was caused by the game moving the player into a set position determined by the Glory Kill animation so that the animation could play out properly. The discovery of “GK Clipping” was essential to the route of the run, allowing runners to skip extremely large portions of the game. Unfortunately, you did not get the ability to Glory Kill until after the Intro Cutscene, so it wasn’t possible to use it at that point.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/1pzm7wzk.jpg)

Many runners tried to figure out some other way to get out of the room, as some rooms in the game simply have no collision in certain areas, allowing you to get out of bounds that way.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzr9mz4.jpg)Unfortunately, this room did not seem to be one of those cases. It is rumored that someone was able to get out by creating a macro that spammed jump inputs, but there was never any video evidence, and attempts to recreate it were unsuccessful.

For nearly 3 years, the search for the illusive Intro Skip continued, but only left those who chased it feeling disappointed.  This caused many runners to give up hope, and just accept that they would be stuck watching this cutscene in Reset Hell forevermore.

# The Discovery

That was until the well-known Any% world record holder [seeker__](https://www.speedrun.com/user/seeker_) discovered what is now known as [Paperclipping](https://youtu.be/6P8_zYeElJU). As it turns out, some walls in DOOM 2016 are paper-thin. So thin in fact, that if you find a corner or a little outcropping in a wall, you can wiggle your way in between the intersecting planes and just sorta.. pop out of bounds. Paperclips were found all throughout the game, ***including*** in the doorway before the Praetor Suit room. This meant that we could now take a *very* naked DOOM Guy to the end of the level and watch a (thankfully) short cutscene featuring the Slayers bare hands rather than the typical Praetor Suit gloves you’d normally get.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5ngkkzq.jpg)*[Source](https://youtu.be/HVhoXbKeIv0?t=53)*

# The Timesave

The discovery of the Paperclip ended up shaving around *2 and a half minutes* from the 24-minute run, with Intro Skip saving over a minute of that alone. As for the Praetor Suit, you needn’t worry. The Slayer gets reunited with his titular armor immediately after completing “The UAC,” because a marine released from a hellish sarcophagus killing demons that bleed ammunition is fine but doing it naked?

Well, that’s just a bit *too* ridiculous.

The Praetor Suit and accompanying cutscene were one of the last major slow points to overcome for DOOM speedrunning. This is the story of how it was solved.