Elden Ring speedrunner niko bellic carved a path through the game, from start to finish, in a little over two and a half hours, and they did it without dying once. The speedrun video contains massive spoilers if you haven't finished the game yet, which is probably almost everyone right now. But as someone who has, I can tell you that niko bellic's run is impressive for both the way the route makes use of all of the game's built-in location skips, and how they managed to execute all of the required boss fights without taking a fatal hit.
The speedrun starts like every casual playthrough of the game. Niko bellic chooses Vagabond as their starting class and then almost immediately starts sprinting through the game. They take a direct path to the Gatefront Site of Grace, grab Torrent, and head toward the waygate that teleports you to northern Caelid. Torrent is crucial for much of the run because it allows niko bellic to skip almost everything that isn't part of the critical path through the game. They can do things like run up to the Night's Cavalry boss without taking a hit, and then lead it over to the bridge where it leaps off to its death for easy runes. Many of the boss fights in the run seem to happen purely for leveling up or for items to increase niko bellic's damage.
It doesn't seem like niko bellic performs any major glitches or skips that aren't available to anyone playing the game. Elden Ring has a few optional ways to get to mid- and late-game areas earlier than you normally would, and niko bellic uses almost all of them. For example: there's a path to the right of Stormveil Castle that skips Margit and Godrick, the first two major boss fights in the game. When they choose to actually fight the bosses though, you can really see the skill come through in their play. Elden Ring's final boss fights can be pretty brutal with a high-leveled character, and niko bellic did it with the starting armor, longsword, and boatloads of strength and dexterity. Instead of finding some outrageous trick to one-shot the bosses, niko bellic carefully dodge rolls out of attacks and uses their build to consistently stagger enemies to death.
If you've played the game, you can see the gears working in niko bellic's brain as they sprint past enemies, pull levers, and pass through fog doors. Souls games often have ridiculous skips that include slipping underneath the ground to skip areas or bugs that cause enemies to instantly die, but niko bellic largely gets by with absurd combat skills. A good reminder that there's always someone that's this good at a Souls game less than a month after its release.
