Elden Ring Gameplay Speedrun Part 1

Why People Actually Watch These Speedruns

The first thing you need to understand about Elden Ring Gameplay Speedrun Part 1 is that most people have no idea what they're actually looking at. You press play, see someone running through Limgrave with a katana, and assume it's just "playing the game fast." It isn't. There's a layer of routing knowledge, item optimization, and enemy interaction manipulation that separates a casual sprint from an actual speedrun. I've spent the better part of three years watching and analyzing these runs, and I still find new things after the hundredth viewing. Part 1 generally covers the journey from the Start of the game through to beating Margit, the Fell Omen. Some runners push further into Stormveil Castle, but the community standard for "Part 1" tends to end at Margit because that's where the major difficulty spike is. The route itself has been largely stabilized over the past couple of years. The current best times hover around the twenty-five to thirty-minute mark, depending on which RNG calls you manage to hit.

Elden Ring Gameplay Speedrun Part 1 Breakdown

Let me walk through how the run actually unfolds, because the typical viewer misses a lot of what's happening between the boss fights. Your starting class matters more than you'd think. Most top runners go Hexmaster or Hero. The difference between those two is subtle but real. Hexmaster starts with the Spinning Slash skill and a bit more magical flexibility early on. Hero gives you higher vigor and a stronger starting weapon. If you're running a straight melee approach without any magic preparation, Hero is the more consistent choice. I used to run Hexmaster exclusively until I started dying to Margit far more often than I should have been. Switched to Hero and the consistency improved noticeably. The open world section of the run is where most first-time runners blow their times. You need to move through Limgrave with deliberate purpose. Head east out of the starting site of grace, clear the immediate enemies along the main path, and make your way toward the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace. Do not stop to collect upgrade materials. Do not explore the northern cave systems. There are items that give you nice buffs but grabbing them costs you twelve to fifteen minutes of real time. The math never works out in your favor. From the Stormveil Cliffside grace, you take the eastern path toward Gatefront. This section has a specific sequence of three groups of soldiers and a single knight that you need to manipulate. The trick that most people miss is that the first knight, the one at the top of the ramp near the gate, will aggro based on line of sight rather than proximity if you approach from the lower ledge. You can drop down the left side of the ramp early in the run and pull him down slowly. It sounds like it would waste time. It saves about forty seconds compared to engaging him head-on at the gate because you avoid the initial shock attack that stuns you and forces you back into a defensive position. I only figured this out by accident during my fourty-seventh attempt on the same run. I dropped down the ledge because I misjudged the jump and had to recover, and I noticed I was already pulling the knight when I landed. Just something to keep in mind.

After Gatefront, you proceed into Stormveil Castle proper. The run typically routes you through the main corridor toward the Lion Chief General. This is the first major enemy encounter where you can actually die and lose a significant amount of time. The lion chief regenerates health relatively quickly if you pull back too far, and falling off the narrow bridge area means you have to fight your way back up through the same enemies. The safest approach is to stand near the edge of the platform and chip away at his health while staying mobile. Do not try to dodge-roll through his charge attacks unless you are confident in your timing. You have two rolls on most weapons before stamina recovery kicks in. Spend both. Take the hit if you have to. Recover. Repeat. Once the lion chief is down, you need to reach the Stormveil Castle main gate. There is a shortcut through a room full of flying rat enemies. Some runners skip this entirely and take the long way around. Others burn twelve seconds clearing the room and gain a marginal advantage on the other side. I recommend clearing it. The rats have low health and you can take them down quickly enough that it is not worth the extra time of navigating around the castle exterior. The final section before Margit is the largest courtyard with multiple archers and soldiers. The routing here involves luring the archers one at a time. Do not rush into the courtyard. Stand at the entrance and wait for a single archer to step out of cover, kill them, then move forward another few paces and repeat. If you charge in, you will have three enemies attacking you simultaneously and you will likely die. I once died four times in a row trying to speed through this courtyard and lost nearly eight minutes total. Patience pays off here.

Then there is Margit. The boss fight itself is where the run truly separates itself. Margit has three main phases in the context of a speedrun: his initial staff swings, his spectral weapon summon, and his final charge attack. Most runners attempt to skip the second phase entirely by breaking his stance early and landing a critical hit. The technique requires you to use a weapon with decent poise damage and attack from the side rather than in front. I used a heavy thrust shield and a standard thrust sword to manage this. The shield blocks enough of his initial attacks that I could walk up beside him and land several hits before he recovered. This reduced the Margit fight from roughly four minutes to under ninety seconds in my best runs. After Margit falls, the Part 1 route ends. You do not continue into the rest of Stormveil unless the specific category you are chasing requires it. The race is over. The save file triggers the transition cutscene and the runner is done.

Common Mistakes That Ruin Runs

The most frequent mistake I see in amateur Elden Ring Gameplay Speedrun Part 1 attempts is attempting to be clever instead of following the established route. There is a reason the optimal path goes through specific sites of grace and avoids certain enemies. Deviating from that path because you think there might be a shortcut will cost you time. Always. The route has been tested thousands of times. Trust it. Another mistake is poor weapon selection for the Margit fight. Runners who pick a weapon with low poise damage or slow attack speed will struggle to skip phases and will end up spending far longer on the boss than necessary. A spear like the Cross-Naginata works well because it has range and decent speed. A greatsword is slower and gives Margit more openings to counter-attack. Choose your tool carefully before the run begins. The third mistake is ignoring your incantation selection. If you are running a hybrid build, the Spinning Slash incantation from the Hexmaster is extremely useful for clearing groups of standard enemies quickly. It has a short startup and a wide area of effect. Using it appropriately can save you thirty to forty five seconds across the entire run. Many runners forget about it because they are focused on the weapon and neglect the spell slot entirely.

What This Method Cannot Do

Speedrunning Part 1 of Elden Ring is not a solution for anyone who wants a challenge. The runs are built around min-maxing every possible interaction. You are not playing the game. You are executing a sequence of inputs designed to reach a finish line as efficiently as possible. The experience feels completely different from normal playthroughs. If you are looking for enjoyment or immersion, this approach will feel hollow. You are moving through enemy encounters the way a commuter moves through a subway station. You do not stop to admire the architecture. You get to the other side. Additionally, the current route has a hard ceiling. Margit can still kill you. The RNG on his attacks is unforgiving, and a single bad rolldraw can cost you two or three minutes of reset time. This means your average run time will be significantly higher than the published best times. Expect your completed runs to land somewhere between thirty-five and fifty minutes unless you have practiced the Margit skip extensively. There is no workaround for the RNG element. You accept it or you do not run. If you are interested in attempting this yourself, start by watching a current top-tier run at 0.75x speed. Pause frequently. Note the exact locations where you would want to deviate from the standard path and compare that to what the runner actually did. You will find that they took the boring option almost every time. That is the correct instinct. Follow the established route, practice the Margit skip until you can execute it reliably, and stop trying to make the run your own. The times will improve as a result.