The art of speedrunning has brought many experienced players to complete games in the least amount of time possible. Now, a new legend has risen in the world of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as a speedrunner going by the gymnast86 moniker has managed to complete the game in less than 2 hours.
You can watch the incredible run, which clocks at 1 hour and 34 minutes, below:
The author of the speedrun has also made it abundantly clear that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has most of the tech brought by Breath of the Wild patched out. In other words, different tech was used in this Any% run that saw the game through to its end in less than 2 hours. While gymnast86 doesn't think that the glitches will be permanently inaccessible, they still won't work in Tears of the Kingdom as they did in Breath of the Wild.
The speedrun uses the game’s new weapon-fusing ability, which enables players to make their own, more powerful weapons by attaching two items together. If you're curious about what kind of tech was used to complete the game in the least time possible, gymnast86 has made a thorough breakdown video that goes over the weapons used throughout the run alongside the strategies for the final boss gauntlet. Needless to say, this video will come packed full with spoilers:
It's incredible how quickly the speedrunning community is finding ways to finish the newly-released Zelda game in the least time possible. While there wasn't much in the way of glitches or flashy for this run, it will be great to see what new movement tech options and quicker ways to defeat the final boss will be found by the community. How much further can Tears of the Kingdom runs be optimized? Only time will tell.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is currently available exclusively for Nintendo Switch.