Spelunky 2 has been out for less than a week, and while many players (like me) are still fumbling through its depths, others are kicking its ass. The latest world record speedrun clears the game in under four minutes, with the runner doing most of it on one point of health.
As spotted by PC Gamer, runner d_tea did an Any% run of the game in just over three and a half minutes. It’s about two and a half minutes faster than the current second place finisher. The run makes use of the teleporter, an in-game item that transports the player an unpredictable number of tiles in the direction they’re facing. It’s a risky item to use, since you can’t control where you end up. (I got the teleporter in a recent run and immediately blipped myself onto some spikes.)
Spoilers for Spelunky 2 below and in video.
It’s made riskier here by the fact d_tea spends most of the run with only one point of health, after losing two points to an arrow trap in 1-2 and another to a caveman in 1-3. That doesn’t provide much margin for error, but d_tea manages to successfully zip and hop through the game, beat some bosses, and come out victorious.
Players are still charting out Spelunky 2's secrets, so we’re bound to see faster runs soon. Still, it’s nice to take a moment to appreciate the moves of a Spelunky player who’s far better than I can ever hope to be.