Ocarina of Time has long been one of the most famously broken Zelda titles, with its Any% speedrunning category (defined as beating the game as quickly as possible using any methods available) consistently being an amalgamation of every trick the game has to offer. Until late last year, the record stood at 17 minutes, an impressive feat on its own, but also faster than any other mainstream Zelda category by quite a margin.

However, thanks to a new glitch known as Stale Reference Manipulation and a process known as Arbitrary Code Execution, runners have once again been trimming this time down, in considerably large chunks. Thanks to very specific file naming, movement, and angles, as well as a lot of luck, a runner can warp straight from Kokiri Forest to a section of the game’s credits.

The runner, Lozoots , has been leading the current push in time saves, all the way down from the former 17 minute record to now. While there isn’t much left to optimize (there’s only so much time you can save in a 10 minute run), the glitch is still relatively new, so don’t be surprised to see a few more seconds shaved off in the coming months.

With this new record, Ocarina of Time presents yet another speedrunning milestone: the first main category to be completed in under 10 minutes. The game has constantly presented landmark occasions for speedrunning, and is responsible for countless breakthroughs and discoveries. This may well be the biggest and the final event this category in particular sees. Sure, the game’s multiple other categories are still seeing the ripple effect of the new glitch, but nothing will ever quite match the excitement of a new Any% world record.

The speedrunning community has developed specific guidelines for determining record times, and the Any% category in particular allows runners to use any in-game means necessary to finish the game. Please be polite when discussing this milestone in the comments below; not all players enjoy a game in the same way.

What are your thoughts on this achievement? How long have you been following the Ocarina of Time Any% category? Let us know in the comments below!