If you’ve ever followed speedrunning before, then you will know that it’s an ever-evolving medium of video game competition. It’s seldom as simple as who can beat Super Mario 64 the fastest, but rather, who can beat the game in a particular manner the fastest. That’s why most speed games have the distinction between any% runs and 100%, with some mild variations in between. That being said, speedrunning has a new trick up its sleeve, and that’s the no% speedrun.
As opposed to an any% speedrun where the objective is to get to the game’s ending through whatever means necessary as fast as possible, the no% category instead centers around the mind of the speedrunner. For speedrunners, speed comes second nature, but nature is a completely foreign concept.
The goal of the no% speedrun is to simply put down the controller and go outside as quickly as possible. To a non-speedrunner, this sounds just like a normal day. For speedrunners however, the no% category provides an exciting challenge.
The no% speedrun does have a wide variety of speed tech. Many runners have adopted a wide variety of strategies such as buying sunscreen and conducting runs at night as to avoid running into their parents. Some no% runners have even gone to the lengths of removing their doors so they can reduce door lag in their runs. The number one spot currently belongs to Danish runner Glarzard, who began his run outside to begin with.
We interviewed renowned Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg speedrunner David “OtakuFl4sh” Jimenez about the new no% craze. “You know, it’s a lot harder than it sounds,” he claims. “Once you get a taste of speed, like a true taste of frame-saving, cutscene-skipping speed, it’s hard to go back to the person you once were. Doing no% runs of Billy Hatcher is more than just going outside, it’s me wrestling with my lust for doing things really, really fast.”
“I’ve even started doing no% runs on my dream of being a best-selling author, and I have to tell you, it is going really great. I have a lot of good ideas, though.”
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