How did you play Breath of the Wild? Did you use the Divine Beast as your main line and hit Ganon directly, or did you enjoy a moment of peace in the vast world of Hyrule? The 2017 masterpiece is known for its flexible systems and seemingly endless ways to play. But I think most people out there don’t play games like this.
People rush to PC after hearing news of new ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ #AGDQ2023 https://t.co/x81FahevHc pic.twitter.com/DhlhaqMPcx
— Game done quickly 🔜 #SGDQ2023 (@GamesDoneQuick) January 8, 2023
Welcome to the world of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Fast and Speed Running. More than six years after BotW’s 2017 launch, a hardcore group of avid Zelda speedrunners have shrunk Link’s greatest adventure to just 23 minutes and 50 seconds.
That’s right – collecting all four Sheikah Slate powers, leaving the Great Plateau, and destroying Calamity Ganon can be done in less time than it takes to hang your laundry. Well, you and I probably can’t. But it’s possible for Player 5, the world record holder for Any% speedrun in Breath of the Wild.
After years of making discoveries and optimizing speedrunning strategies in Breath of the Wild, the game is about to change. The Zelda speedrunning community has its eyes on Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to Breath of the Wild, due in less than a month.
IGN asked Player 5 and fellow Breath of the Fast and Furious runner Tom “Tales of Thomas” Rasmussen how the community is preparing to hit the reset button when Tears of the Kingdom releases next month. We heard about how the new fuse abilities and other mechanics shown work. An opportunity to radically shake up the scene.
Zelda Speedrunning’s Return to the ‘Wild West’
Player 5 and Tallest Thomas both started speedrunning Breath of the Wild about three years ago. Player 5 is currently the Any% world record holder (and Players who killed BotW 50 times in a day), the tallest Thomas was in the top ten at one point. Any% is a speedrun category where the only goal is to reach the end of the game as quickly as possible. Compare this to his 100% run, where the player must complete all the objectives the game offers as quickly as possible.
When the tall Thomas joined the speedrunning scene, record times weren’t as efficient as they are now. He describes it as the “Wild West” of Breath of the Wild speedrunning before all the current tricks and strategies were established. But the execution quickly became efficient over time, thanks to a community of players determined to beat Breath of the Wild whenever possible.
“I’ve never seen a glitch hunting community as passionate as Breath of the Wild,” says Talrest Thomas. “There are people in our community who literally play games to break them. They are not speedrunners. Just trying.
In fact, BotW’s game breakers (not speedrunners) discovered the game’s most revolutionary speedrunning technique. It’s called BLSS, which stands for Bow Lift Smuggling Slide. In the video at the beginning of this article, Link is basically flying across the map at a much faster speed than he would be able to travel naturally.
In very basic terms, Tallest Thomas explains that in BLSS, players are basically tricking the game into picking up items while holding a bow. With good timing and perfect button inputs, you step onto a ledge and items start pushing links onto the map at high speed.
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BLSS is a staple of Player 5’s record run, but speedrunners don’t want it back in Tears of the Kingdom.
“I wish [Breath of the Wild’s speedrunning techniques] Player 5 says: “Because if you want to use these glitches, you just have to play Breath of the Wild… to understand something early on. Everything in the game should be fun before the route is established. is.”
Six years later, the community is excited for a fresh start to relive the early days of Zelda speedrunning. Thomas, the tallest, echoes that sentiment when he says he’s excited to figure out his new speedrun technique.
“I’m not a big fan of BLSS…we use it because it’s good. My personal experience is that it’s just frustrating to use,” says Tallest Thomas. “I’m not discouraged by the fact that the mechanics are changing. It’s going to be weird and it’ll be a tweak, but it’s definitely going to be very fresh and very cool. Strategy development and set-up I love helping them learn…that’s one of my favorite things about speedrunning…so I’m super excited about Tears of the Kingdom’s all-new ‘explore and discover everything’. ”
Tears of the Kingdom could also breathe new life into Breath of the Wild’s somewhat stagnant speedrunning route. Tallest Thomas explains that when Skyward Sword came out, speedrunners discovered a speedrunning technique called Back in Time that allowed players to control Link during the pause menu.
Players returned to the previous Zelda game, Twilight Princess, and discovered that the trick worked there as well. This is because, like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword run on the same engine. You might have expected a new Zelda game to ruin Breath of the Wild’s speedrunning scene, but we hear that Tears of the Kingdom actually helps keep it alive.
“When a new game comes out, it shares the same game engine, so it’s possible that we’re cross-referencing bugs and tricks in each game,” says Tallest Thomas. “I think Breath of the Wild will have even more to discover as Tears of the Kingdom evolves.”
How Tears of Kingdom Mechanics Changed the Game
Tears of the Kingdom seems to play in an even more impressive sandbox than its predecessor. Zelda When his series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed Link’s new Fuse, Ascend, Recall and Ultra Hand abilities in his March Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration, all My imagination quickly soared about the possibilities. Zelda’s Speedrunner, on the other hand, quickly started thinking about how these new abilities could break the game.
Player 5 explains that one of the most important aspects of speedrunning in Breath of the Wild is weapon routing. Take the most efficient speedrun route through Hyrule Castle and quickly loot powerful weapons to defeat the 4 Bright Ganons and Calamity Ganons as quickly as possible. The new fuse feature may require a lot of experimentation before the community finds the best way to take advantage of it.
“I think Fuse can make weapon routing for boss fights in Tears of the Kingdom really cool and unique,” says Player 5. “I think Ascend is going to be pretty interesting. It will be interesting to see if we can break it. In Breath of the Wild you can clip out of bounds. Ascend goes out of bounds. but just a little…but maybe we can find a way to use it where it wasn’t intended.”
When using Ascend, Link will swim through solid objects above him. For casual Tears of the Kingdom players, this is often a convenient way to avoid climbing. However, Speedrunner imagines what would happen if Link were forced out of bounds to save time. I agree that it’s the most interesting new mechanic we’ve seen.
“The ability to go through floors and reach something can be very relevant to speedruns. I definitely want to see how fusing works. Breath of the Wild has If some of the inventory tricks and glitches transition to tears when you think of the kingdom, you have the potential to do some really wacky things with Fusion.”
Zelda speedrunners are also excited to play Tears of the Kingdom normally
In all the talk about speedrunning, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these speedrunners are also huge Zelda fans. The Breath of the Wild speedrunning Discord server has a dedicated channel talking about the Tears of the Kingdom hype.
So Player 5, Tallest Thomas, and the rest of the community are excited to dive into Tears of the Kingdom breaking news, but plan to start with a casual playthrough first and foremost. Thomas says he doesn’t just speedrun games, he picks games that really interest him.
“When we play Tears of the Kingdom for the first time, we try to keep it as minimal as possible, just like when we do our first playthrough,” says Tallest Thomas. And then when you’re done with that playthrough and you beat the storyline and stuff, you go ahead and start working really hard to beat it and beat it fast. ”
For more on Zelda, check out IGN’s breakdown of the gameplay showcase and the final Tears of the Kingdom trailer. Plus, read what IGN’s own Zelda geek has to say about Tears of the Kingdom and check out the ultimate Tears of the Kingdom pre-order guide to get ready for May 12th. Tears of the Kingdom is out this week and you can preload it now.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN.
