Nemz38's Any% Dark Souls 3 speedrun world record comes in at just over 35 minutes. My latest save, within which I've just reached the final showdown with the Soul of Cinder, stands at just under 84 hours. And I swear it could've taken longer.
Having now claimed the 'Souls Level 1 All Bosses' speedrun world record—at just 1:36:46—Nemz now holds all eight accolades recognised by the game's speedrunning community. This run is particularly impressive, because it involves the player beating all of the game's bosses, including those found in both portions of DLC, without leveling up whatsoever.
Prepare to let your jaw hit the floor:
I'm in the process of writing a feature article about the Soulsborne speedrunning community, and as such have spent the past several weeks chatting to its members about the methods, tricks and glitches runners use to breeze through the series best known for its difficulty.
I couldn't do it myself, but I now feel semi-knowledgeable on the vast amount of dedication and perseverance required to top the leader boards. Nevertheless, new record-breaking runs never fail to impress me—and Nemz' Dark Souls 3 work is, clearly, the best there is.
Look out for our deep dive into the Souls speedrunning scene in the coming weeks—and in the meantime check out some of the series' other runners in this direction.
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