Top 10 Speedrunning Skips in Gaming

Highlights

Speedrunners constantly find glitches and skips to complete games quickly, like breaking out of bounds or warping to the end credits.

Speedrunners exploit specific glitches in games such as Portal and Dark Souls, enabling them to achieve record-breaking completion times. By utilizing various glitches and skips, speedrunners can bypass significant portions of gameplay in titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64.

Speedrunning is a true testament to the determination, resilience, and unwavering spirit of gamers. Their objective is to complete a game in the shortest time possible, pushing the boundaries of what is considered achievable. Whether it's Super Mario or Dark Souls, the speedrunning communities for these games are forever searching for innovative methods to conquer the game with unparalleled swiftness.

Be it propelling themselves backwards to gain immense speed and traverse through walls effortlessly or manipulating their saved game data to instantly reach the end credits, speedrunners are tirelessly dedicated to uncovering shortcuts and dissecting games in order to achieve their goal of ultimate speed!

10 Portal

Portal

Platform(s) PC, PS3, Switch, Xbox 360Released October 10, 2007Developer(s) ValveGenre(s) Puzzle See at Steam

Unsurprisingly, Valve's game, Portal, offers several loopholes that can be taken advantage of. Although the game is intended to challenge players' perception of reality through its puzzles and platforming, speedrunners manage to break free from the game's boundaries within the first five seconds, spending more time outside the designated limits than within them.

These speedrunners exploit the environment by interacting with specific items and positioning themselves between a wall and the object. By combining this technique with quick-saving and quick-loading, they are able to manipulate the character model, seamlessly navigating through the level's geometry and completing the entire game in less than six minutes.

9 Dark Souls

Dark Souls

Platform(s) PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch, PCReleased September 22, 2011Developer(s) From SoftwareGenre(s) Action RPG

Dark Souls is notorious for its high level of difficulty and various shortcuts, such as the Homeward wrong warp skip. In order to execute this glitch, speedrunners must input a specific sequence of commands to warp to the Kiln of the First Flame, which is essentially the final section of the game.

To initiate the glitch, the player needs to select Firelink Altar as their character's designated home bonfire. They should then proceed to any other bonfire and cast the miracle spell called Homeward, simultaneously sitting at the bonfire. This causes confusion in the Homeward spell, resulting in the game being unsure of where to teleport the player. As a result, the player finds themselves suddenly placed at Firelink Altar, with a clear path towards the end of the game.

8 Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage

In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, players utilize proxy jumps, a glitch that enables them to achieve greater heights than normally possible, thereby surpassing the game's boundaries.

To execute a proxy jump, players must maneuver the character into areas where it is not intended to go. This is typically accomplished by utilizing the wall geometry to bounce out of bounds and progress through the game. Once the character occupies an unfitting location, the game will instinctively attempt to expel the character in the path of least resistance, often upwards, thereby enabling players to bypass significant portions of the game.

7 The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Platform(s) Nintendo 64, GameCubeReleased November 21, 1998Developer(s) NintendoGenre(s) Action, Adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time features fascinating skips through the use of Arbitrary Code Execution. By exploiting this glitch, players can directly skip to the game's end credits. However, witnessing this glitch in action can be quite perplexing, and its execution is far from simple.

To initiate this skip, players must first assign a specific name to the game file and then perform a series of inputs to rearrange data within the game's memory, emulating code. Runners manipulate the game's code execution location, resulting in an immediate warp to the end credits.

6 Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2

Platform(s) PC, Xbox 360, Xbox (Original), PS3, macOS, Linux, AndroidReleased November 16, 2004Developer(s) ValveGenre(s) Shooter

Half-Life 2 is yet another Valve game to make the list. A glitch in the game makes it incredibly simple to bypass obstacles by standing on a prop, grabbing it, and moving forward. This glitch grants players unlimited height, enabling them to skip barriers throughout the game.

By cleverly combining prop flight and bunny hopping, speedrunners can maintain their momentum from jumps and even gather more speed with each subsequent jump. This technique allows them to complete Half-Life 2 in just under 43 minutes, crossing levels at an impressive pace.

5 Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64

Platform(s) N64Released September 26, 1996Developer(s) NintendoGenre(s) 3D Platformer

In the Super Mario 64 16-star speedrun, players utilize various glitches and skips, such as the Mips glitch and the famous backward long jump. The backward long jump enables Mario to bypass walls in the game by achieving high movement speed.

By employing the backward long jump near a flight of stairs, players can rapidly input the command, causing Mario to gain speed exponentially. This allows him to clip through the Bowser door at the game's conclusion. As a result, players can access the final stage and skip over 80% of the required star collection in the game.

4 Outlast

Outlast

Platform(s) PS4, Xbox One, PC, Linux, macOS, SwitchReleased November 4, 2013Developer(s) Red BarrelsGenre(s) Survival Horror

Outlast has a known exploit in speedrunning where players can skip the entire game by utilizing simple platforming techniques. By navigating to the courtyard of the asylum and locating a row of bushes on the right side, players can take advantage of poor collision detection. Specifically, there is an area of the bush border that allows players to perform a precise jump and land on top of the bush, effectively breaking out of bounds. Once on top of the bushes, another precise jump activates the loading zone for the endgame lab, leading to a final cut scene that involves a quick walk through the asylum.

3 Pokemon Blue

In the Any% speedrun of Pokemon Blue, players can bypass all Pokemon battles by utilizing save corruption. By following these steps with characters named ASH and GARY, you will be able to progress from the beginning of the game to the credits without engaging in any battles. Start by going downstairs in the player's home and positioning yourself one tile away from the door. Save the game at this point, and quickly turn off the console before the message "now saving" appears. After restarting the console, load the saved game and you will notice that the menu is glitched. By selecting certain menu options, you can exploit the glitches in the game and warp the player directly to the credits.

2 Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)

Yet another addition to the list of wrong warps! This particular skip involves leveraging the Hover Glitch. To execute it, the player needs to progress through the game until they reach Solaris Phase 2, which occurs within the "End of the World" level.

Once in this level, the player can connect consecutive Homing Attacks towards Solaris simultaneously with Elise. This grants Sonic the power to maintain the Homing Attack until he touches the ground once more. By utilizing this technique, Sonic can pass through barriers that are typically impassable, ultimately finishing the level and initiating the end credits of the game.

1 Two Worlds

Possibly the most humorous inclusion on the list, Two Worlds presents a delightful sequence where the townspeople of a small village revolt against the primary antagonist of the game. This particular feat can only be accomplished with the original update of the game, yet it proves to be an exhilarating speedrun to witness.

The game swiftly introduces the ultimate boss, and should the player initiate an attack and attract the boss's attention, the boss will relentlessly pursue the player to the closest village and unleash Fireball, a spell capable of causing area-of-effect damage. Consequently, the villagers become incensed and commence their assault on the final boss. With the boss defeated, the concluding credits commence. Who says the protagonists never emerge victorious?