Title is a good summary I reckon. The last time I played this game was back in the summer of 2017, and I tried doing some very basic at home speedruns on my Xbox and got very poor results, but I had a blast doing it. The game is on sale on Steam right now and I've really wanted to get into the speedrunning community. I thought this game would be the perfect game to fit my niche and keep me entertained with repetitive runs.

I guess the main questions I have for anyone that's bothered to read this far are:

1. What do I need to get into speedrunning this game in particular (timers, load cutters, specific game versions, etc.)?
2. Are there any glitches I need to learn to use?
3. Do I need to learn how to downpatch like in some other speedrunning games?
4. If there are glitches that used to be used, but the game is unable to be downpatched, does that effect the viability of future runs?
5. Is the game beaten, or is it possible to still make a new world record (not that I believe I could do this myself, but am just curious about the state of the game, I would like to give it a go regardless)?

I have read some of the guides, and plan on reading more of them as well as watching some videos to get a sense of how to approach the game, but nonetheless I would like to learn as much about this community as I can before I start running so I can make sure that I'm doing everything properly and by the rules. Thanks a bunch to anyone that's read all of this, and I appreciate any help or correspondence on the questions I've asked above, have a good day :D

CaptainEzekiel's Easy New Game + WR is good to watch when learning to speedrun. Every skip/shortcut he uses except the OOB is still possible. The OOB is done slightly different now. In the video below the OOB strat starts at 23:52. The part where he actually goes out of bounds is at 25:00. For the new OOB that you're gonna need to use i'd look at Ezekiel's New game + Easy PC cutscene skip run. It's slightly different as Jack now stays upstairs and follows you from above instead of coming down with you.

To cut even more time you're gonna have to buy the Japanese version of the game which i think is available in Microsoft Store??

You're also gonna have to play with your FPS. Mia 1 and 2 fight can be a 1 hit if your fps is very high (300+) and it is set to "variable" in-game. Also for squeezing through tight places which slows u down u can set your fps to 30 which makes the game more choppy and gets you through quicker.

There are alot of places where u have to pause and press retry for example after Mia 1 fight and before Mia 2 fight. The game slows u down after the first Mia fight and if u keep going where u have to go there'll be a quicksave from the game somewhere. When that happens u pause and retry real quick so that u get to run at a faster tempo again which might save a few seconds. I'd look thoroughly through the video's to see where those parts are.

It is still possible to get new WR in any of the RE7 runs whether it's DLC or the storyline. The NG+ Easy run is gonna be pretty hard to beat though i'll tell you that. There definitely won't be a 2 min cutoff from the WR if no new strats are being used.

There's no need for a downpatch and a timer is not required but it is encouraged. Most people use LiveSplit: https://livesplit.org/

There was a playlist which showed how to do the strats to kill every boss as fast as possible but i'm not able to find it right now. Maybe someone else will post it here below

First off, welcome.

I'm just going to say that with what Hizzo posted above is almost completely accurate and sound advice. The only thing I think I would add is to talk to other runners and hang out in streams of runners who actively run the game. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be attained from those who have been running the game for a long time.

As for getting started? Just do runs, get livesplit up and running (ask in the discord for help if needed, TheDementedSalad is a fantastic resource) and go to town. Speedrunning is personal milestone type of hobby and you get better by playing more.

I'm not active right this moment, but I am around in discord and respond to DMs if you ever have questions about the run, I am very happy to shed light on anything I've done in my runs. I am and many others are always happy to help new runners with RE7.

Happy running!

Thank you both very much for your help and information! I was just able to get the Cero D version up and running and am starting to watch all the videos I can to try and learn how to get through everything. I'm sure I'm going to continue to have questions going forward, I'll try to solve them on my own for the most part, but if there's anything I'm truly struggling with, I'll definitely reach out again. Thank you both again very much, y'all are very encouraging and it makes me excited to join the community that's been created here :D