An explanation of the insanity that is this run: First off, this is an any% unrestricted speedrun which means the game must be beaten by any means humanly possible. This is done on current patch (1.03) because it is the most stable
The star of the show in this run are the zips. A zip is performed by guarding and then walking at a specific time afterward for a specific number of frames. These are frame perfect. The zip is caused by the specific way the walking and guarding animations overlap. Zips are reliant on hardware (and are therefore only allowed in unrestricted runs) and lower resolution makes them more consistent. Macros are not allowed, these are done manually.
The class chosen is the Vagabond because with the halberd equipped the character is heavy which allows for farther zips.
Exiting and reloading is used throughout the run to skip some animations and because the leaderboards are based on in-game time. So even if exiting and reloading to skip an animation takes more time than the animation does, quitting saves time as far as the speedrun is concerned.
The first objective is getting to the Four Belfries. There is a zip to Stormveil from the starting location. Then, from Stormveil to Raya Lucaria. Here the zip is aimed into the terrain to bounce in the correct direction with the right amount of distance height. Finally, a zip from Raya Lucaria to Belfries.
The Belfries are important because one of the gates goes to Farum Azula. Farum Azula cannot be zipped to because it is not loaded in unless you get there legitimately. After going through the gate, a wrong warp is performed. A wrong warp can be performed in a few different ways. In this run, a memory of grace is used to return to the grace that has just been teleported to, and then the game is force-quit. This causes the game to lose track of the player's location but it knows the player should be in Farum Azula and so it places them in the default Farum Azula location.
In Farum Azula, there is a zip as far into Farum Azula as you can get and then running to the second zip location. This zip goes all the way to the Maliketh arena.
Zips are used to kill Maliketh. It takes three zips to kill each of Maliketh’s phases. A short zip is performed up to a ledge. Another short zip is performed to get outside the arena. Then, a long zip is performed to get enough distance to kill Maliketh. At a specific point in the fall, a plunging attack is performed to extend the fall timer so that Maliketh will die before the player. Again, this set of zips must be performed twice.
After this, there is a zip to the Godfrey arena. Here, Elden Beast is loaded in during the Godfrey fight and by zipping through the arena, activating the Godfrey fight, and going far enough away, Elden Beast will die (as a side effect, this also kills Godfrey’s first phase). And that’s the run.
Hope this was helpful. This run is insane.
Obviously for fans of the series that's a good thing, but as someone who rather enjoyed the original release of Demon's Souls but felt I had my fill of it after, this won't have any special call to me, I don't think.
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