The fastest speedruns in Breath of the Wild are slightly over forty minutes. Link wakes up, rushes to Ganon, and saves the world in the blink of an eye. But the game is full of treasures to find and other tasks to complete. A new speedrun to collect everything takes over two days to fully explore Hyrule.
Xalikah is a French language speedrunner who undertook the massive task of completing the first 100% of Breath of the Wild. The run, which seeks to collect all of the game’s key items and collectables, is a sprawling affair. Coming in at forty nine hours, nine minutes, and forty one seconds, Xalikah scurries about Hyrule to hunt for hidden items, complete the game’s various puzzles shrines, and finish all side quests before finally defeating Ganon.
Before a 100% speedrun could even happen, the community needed to come to a consensus regarding what collectables were necessary. Hashing out requirements begged many questions. Did you need to open every treasure chest? Was it necessary to fully upgrade every piece of armor?
Using a percentage tracker that is visible after game completion, the community settled on requirements that involve all permanent items and upgrades. This means collecting the 900 Korok seeds, completing every shrine, and even filling out the photo book compendium of beasts and weapons.
The result is a marathon speedrun that focuses heavily on finding the best way to move around the world. It’s a long process that involves using ice blocks to climb waterfalls, occasional trickery to speed through shrines, and chugging a lot of potions for extra speed. All so you can grab countless goodies and trinkets.
“The hard part is thinking about all the items and stuff you need,” Xalikah told Kotaku. “Especially when the lack of sleeps kicks in.”
To help keep track of all of the variables, Xalikah turned to a few resources throughout the run. He used an interactive map along the way to catalog his discoveries and even had help from peers in the game’s speedrunning Discord. The other challenge was actually making it through the lengthy run.
“I had a good start on the first 24 hours. When I hit 30 hours, it was hard for me,” Xalikah said. “I felt like the run wasn’t going to end, so I decided to take a nap break.”
Xalikah aims to press his time underneath 40 hours. In a run with so much to cover, there’s plenty of time to save and accidental deaths to avoid. For now, I hope he gets some more sleep.