Elden Ring is the first FromSoftware game to be beaten without fighting a single enemy

Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s largest game to date, but it is also the most broken giving players the ability to beat the game without fighting a single enemy. 

Speedrunning, in a general sense, is a fascinating portion of gaming, especially when examining the Souls games. These titles require inherent skill to beat, so watching people play these games perfectly while attempting to beat the game in a half-hour is a feat to behold.

Games like Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Bloodborne are known for their intense boss fights and precise combat. But speedrunning has found a way to make these bosses feel less intimidating, and sometimes they are skipped entirely.

Nonetheless, players always end up having to face at least one of these bosses when speedrunning. That is until runners found a way to break Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord without laying a hand on a single foe.

Elden Ring beaten without killing any enemies

If you’ve been keeping up with Elden Ring speedruns, you know how wild it’s been over the past month. The run went from 1 hour to less than 30 minutes in the span of a week. Now, it seems like every other day the run has one or two minutes shaved off.

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At the time of reporting, Distortion2 holds the record at eight minutes and 56 seconds. While a normal playthrough can take upwards of 100 hours to complete, runners have broken the game with two mechanics.

The first is a wrong warp. This is where players warp to an area they haven’t discovered by quickly exiting the game during the teleport animation. The second, and most crucial to the run, is the zip glitch.

The zip is done by running the game at exactly 60 FPS by lowering the game’s resolution. Players then hold a great sword or shield in the blocking position and tap forward to the beat of a metronome. When done correctly, the player will fly across the map for a certain distance.

Sound crazy yet? We’ve only just scratched the surface. Before this week, runners had to defeat the four bosses at the end of the game: Maliketh, Hoarah Loux, Radagon, and Elden Beast. Then, players discovered the zip could be used to skip all bosses except Maliketh.

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However, it was theorized that if a zip location was found, players could skip all four bosses. It just so happens, that skip was found making Elden Ring the first FromSoftware Souls game that can be beaten without killing a single enemy.

Technically, they are dead

If you watch the run you may notice that some of the bosses are dying on screen and there are messages saying “god slain”. But the player isn’t technically fighting any of the bosses.

What’s happening is players are sending their character outside of the intended playspace unloading the geometry of the world where the boss is located. With no ground to stand on, the boss falls to its death.

This trick is used to… get rid of Maliketh, Hoarah Loux, and Radagon. So no, the player is not killing any of the bosses nor dealing direct damage. He is simply making the boss fall through the floor.

For more Elden Ring, check out our hub for speedruns including the fastest Any% times, methods, and more!