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Everything you need to know about speedrunning
As speedrunning’s popularity continues to grow, more gamers are looking to learn the ins and outs of the craft. So let’s go through everything you need to know about speedrunning!
With the popularity of speedrunning continuing to grow, more gamers have become interested in becoming speedrunners themselves. But for those who are unfamiliar with speedrunning, it can feel daunting to know where to start as a viewer or even as a new potential speedrunner. Hopefully, for those people, by the end of this article, you’ll know everything you need to know about speedrunning so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for from this massive community!
What is Speedrunning?
Speedrunning at its core is when someone attempts to play and complete a video game as quickly as they possibly can. Once a speedrun is completed the player will upload a video of their run and have the time posted to an online leaderboard to compete with the rest of the world. Speedrunning can be done with basically anything from games like Genshin impact to real life tasks like baking and pencil sharpening, it’s all possible as long as there is a community that wants to compete and speedrun it.
How to get Started
The best way to get started is to visit the Speedrun website which hosts all the leaderboards for games and their various categories and links you to specific Discords for whichever game you may be interested in. For new runners they’ll also direct you to whatever programs you may need such as timers.
Once you’re set up, it’s all about picking the game you want to run. Whether it’s a classic speedrunning game like Super Mario 64 and Minecraft or something more specific and to your liking like Hades, there’s likely a leaderboard already set up (and if not, Speedrun can also guide you through the process of setting it up).
Once you’ve found the game that interests you, you’ll have to pick a category you want to focus on. For most games some of the basic categories are 100%, where the runner must fully complete the game as fast as they can while obtaining everything that’s available; any% where the goal is to simply reach the game’s ending as quickly as you can without needing to complete every possible task; and finally for the games that don’t have a clear beginning and end there’s typically a variety of categories such as Wii Sports where there are categories for specific games and for completing every game as quickly as possible. There are a lot of other types of categories such as with or without glitches but the best way to discover them is by taking a look at your game’s page on Speedrun.
Other terms to know
There are a lot of other terms you’ll learn throughout your time as a speedrunner and while there are some terms that are specific to certain games, here’s a list of some general terms that are good to know.
- PB: An acronym for personal best, when a speedrunner posts a PB it means that the time submitted is the best time they’ve ever achieved for the category.
- WR: An acronym for world record, when a speedrunner posts a WR it means that the time submitted is the best time of any speedrun in the category.
- TAS: An acronym for Tool Assisted Speedrun, a TAS is a speedrun done through an emulator that is able to show what a completely flawless run would look like. In most cases, it’s near impossible for a normal speedrunner to replicate a TAS since it would require perfect reaction times and luck but it’s a great showcase for the time the community is chasing for as they push towards perfection.
- IL: An acronym for individual levels, this term is used for games that can be split into stages and speedrunners are able to compete for the fastest times on specific stages, some great examples of games with IL categories are Goldeneye and Super Mario Bros.
- Split: A term that refers to each individual segment/checkmark for a speedrun. Splits are a great way for speedruns to get an idea of how their run is progression compared to their PB or the WR of the category.
- Segmented Speedrun: A segmented Speedrun is a run in which the run is broken down into individual parts. While these runs aren’t typically official, it does provide a good idea of what is humanly possible as a top time as opposed to a perfectly played run through a TAS.
Now that you have a good understanding of the basics of speedrunning, it’s time to go out there and get involved! Whether you’re trying to beat a personal time or you’re going for the world record, hopefully you’ll have fun on your chase to go faster!
