It's still pretty difficult to do consistently, but I am happy to have gotten the skip into two decent runs! Wild the things you find by accident in games sometimes.

I was messing around with ideas to clip OoB and discovered a way to skip the final door in the machine area. Useful for the No Death% run, but you have to get the skip fairly quickly... twice. Will keep experimenting, but wanted to share.

**EDIT: I've submitted the first new world records for No Death% using the door skip. I think sub-11 min is possible with a very clean run.

Check out the skip explanation here:

Greetings runners,

I would like to address some major changes to the SRC (speedrun com) page. If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes, please message me here on SRC. Thank you for your understanding, and I look forward to rebuilding this community with you all!

MODERATORS:

XYX has unfortunately left SRC. I was able to contact them elsewhere online and confirmed they will not be returning. The only other mod, bladze, has not logged into SRC for years and could not be found, so I contacted SRC and have stepped in as the new moderator of the page.

At this time, there is not enough activity to require an additional mod, however, to help prevent a lapse like this from happening again, if anybody passionate about the game and dedicated to its SRC community would like to be a backup moderator, please contact me to discuss details.

UPDATED LEADERBOARDS:

The boards have been streamlined to better represent the community and its speedruns. Since there isn't a significant enough difference between PS4/PS5 and PC with regards to run times, all platforms have been merged into a single board for each category (except for Any%, where console runs remain separate due to the major skip that was patched on PC).

CATEGORY ADDED:

All Monitors - There are 12 television/computer monitors in the game which can be turned on via interaction. Timing stops when the screen appears after the final monitor interaction.

CATEGORIES REMOVED:

100% - XYX was the only person to submit 100% runs, and unfortunately they have deleted their videos. As there are no longer any runs for the category (and the rules for it were unverifiable anyway), 100% has been retired until a runner wants to revive it. At that time we can discuss the parameters for what constitutes a 100% run and bring the category back with updated rules and a guide.

All Chads - This was removed due to being unverifiable. There are no in-game cues for when a Chad has been "seen" other than the trophy pop-up. Adding categories requiring deletion of your system and cloud saves in Windows/Steam or having to make a new PSN profile for every run, when we are aware there is a "bug" in the game that does not always register these types of collectibles unless you stand near them for many seconds (books, train numbers, etc), does not create a fair or accessible playing field for all runners. As such, none of these types of collectibles will be considered for a category in the future.

GG... guess it's my turn again

The following are frame timed using somewes.com at 60 fps.

KELP FOREST

Start Time (New Game), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 2.967, End Time: 4:40.15, Time: 4:37.183

CORAL REEF

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 4:59.667, End Time: 11:10.467, Time: 6:10.8

OLD TEMPLE

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 11:30.283, End Time: 16:13.367, Time: 4:43.083

ABYSS RIFT

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 16:30.55, End Time: 22:24.317, Time: 5:53.767

FACTORY SHIP

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 22:32.05, End Time: 24:32.067, Time: 2:00.017

ATLANTIS CITY

Start Time (Diver Leaves Ground and Flipper Appears), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

Start Time 25:08.667, End Time: 31:49.9, Time: 6:41.233

PARADISE WATERS

Start Time (Diver Starts Swimming), End Time (End White Light)

Start Time 32:05.417, End Time: 36:39.3, Time: 4:33.883

LRT: 34 minutes, 39.916 seconds

After much discussion, and adapting an idea from years ago when this change first became necessary with the release to multiple platforms, verifiers settled on using in-game visual cues (specific frames) to time runs in segments. Timing only these segments of the game is meant to reduce inconsistencies caused by variable load screen time lag on different platforms. It creates a level playing field for all runners, regardless of what platform they play the game on. And so, runs going forward will be verified on the leaderboard using the cumulative time of the following segments (referred to at Load Removed Time or "LRT"):

NOTE: IF YOU START FROM CHAPTER SELECT, AUTOMATICALLY ADD 1:15 TO YOUR TIME (timing will start the frame you gain control of the diver).

1. KELP FOREST

Start Time (New Game), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

2. CORAL REEF

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

3. OLD TEMPLE

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

4. ABYSS RIFT

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

5. FACTORY SHIP

Start Time (Door Closed), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

6. ATLANTIS CITY

Start Time (Diver Leaves Ground and Flipper Appears), End Time (Loading Triangle Appears)

7. PARADISE WATERS

Start Time (Diver Starts Swimming), End Time (End White Light)

Please bear with the verification team as we work on retiming all of the existing runs on the leaderboards to be consistent with this new LRT method. We will attempt to apply the changes as soon as we can. Thank you!

**FOR RUNS WHERE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Please reach out to the moderation team either here or on Discord if you still have the recording of your run. Until that time, runs without current video evidence will be ranked based on the originally verified RTA only, and will appear at the bottom of the leaderboards.

Back-up video:

That path for the skip is awesome! GG

ILs would be fine as long as there is an interest in running them

There's more information about it on the Discord. :)

What would these category extension runs be, should they get added? Like, what were your main ideas?

If you press Z on your keyboard while in The Caves it allows you to fly and clip through walls to get out of bounds. Pretty simple with trial and error to figure out a setup that works for you. The hard part is getting a consistent setup for hitting the invisible load trigger. It's easier to do while playing with director's commentary turned on since there is a text box you can use to help orientate yourself somewhat in the void.

I am thinking about doing the 100% category, but when should timing stop? There are no credits after finishing all stories. The credits only play after your first story completes.

You need to replay one story after them all to get the last dialog that says "this day you reach the end of a story." That makes 13 total playthroughs.

Here is the end of the 13th playthrough for reference:

I was thinking maybe end time when you click to enter the house after 13th playthrough? Or if you don't think this final dialogue matters (the platinum actually pops up at the end of 12th playthrough), then maybe when you click to enter house after 12th playthrough and make sure video includes the scene where it shows all the books and says the shelf is full just for verification? Would hate to have to set up a new profile for every run if it went by when the platinum trophy pops up on screen (that just makes the category even less likely to be played and I seem to be the first even considering it), but that is also an option.

It's worth noting there is a bug at the Leviathan scene where the game can randomly softlock. It happened to me while I was getting all trophies. I think my routing would start with the two Leviathan paths first because of this. I also found a softlock at right-side cave exit.

I'm with you. The reason I haven't bothered submitting from PS5 is I can't get times as fast as PC. If there were a category split, this feels like an instance where one may be warranted. I highly doubt this game has keyboard support on console. Seems pretty obvious it doesn't.

But does the game have keyboard/mouse support on PS4/PS5? Most games don't.

Same goes for all of my current runs on leaderboard. They were all done on PS5.

All Any% PS4 runs before my 3:14 were on a PS4, though... so whatever my fastest obsolete PS4 submission was will be my new time there.

I'd just like to add, if this change happens, mods please edit all of my leaderboard runs to PS5 platform. I have been playing the digital PS4 game on my PS5, but submitted as PS4 since there was no PS5 option.

However, all obsolete PS4 Any% runs (the ones other than my 3:14) were actually done on PS4 before I owned a PS5.

I also think we should add PS4 Pro as a platform choice.

As far as I can tell, there is no difference between PS4, PS4 Pro, and PS5 for speedrunning purposes. PS5 (and PS4 Pro) runs at a better upper framerate (supposedly up to 60fps, but we all know how this game drops frames and I have noticed it even on PS5), but that's it. The skips and movement from PS4 are all exactly the same on PS4 Pro/PS5. I checked timing between PS4 and PS5 before I switched to PS5 exclusively, and there was no discernable difference by my estimation. It would probably make more sense to unify the existing PS4 categories with PS4 Pro/PS5 than create totally separate ones.

I am willing to help mod the page, XYX. I noticed bladze isn't really around anymore and I check SRC almost daily.

I've noticed the final orb's sweet spot can be either to the left above the tape recorder or to the right above edge of table. Is there any way to manipulate which one you get or tell which one it is as you are approaching?

Been grinding Any% PS4 off-and-on lately, and getting the orb as quick as possible is about the only way for me to PB now. Having good runs get to the orb only to lose what feels like a coin flip is becoming frustrating. Lost a WR pace one today because I guessed right instead of left. -_-

Anytime! It's extremely unfortunate and many PS4 runners have already stopped running Any% Glitchless due to how broken and unfair it is. More power to the PS4 Pro owners out there. I'd rather wait for a PS5.

Since we're playing on console and the IGT isn't reliable to use for speedrun timing, we're forced to use RTA. That means time between crashing and restarting the game and loading last checkpoint has to be counted, otherwise the category becomes even less fair in the long run. If we could use IGT then it wouldn't be an issue, but RTA means we must live with it. It's just part of running on PS4/PS4 Slim.