Oblivion Speedrunner Sets World Record At 2 Minutes and 33 Seconds

Gotta go fast(er)

The Elder Scrolls community has long had a passionate community of dedicated speedrunners who have been probing the game for exploits since its release. A community that also extends to Bethesda’s other titles like the Fallout series. Games like Oblivion and Skyrim have accumulated a large number of dedicated fans who are eager to exploit every glitch the games have to offer.

Only yesterday, a speedrunner by the name “Karsto” uploaded his speedrun of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion setting a world record at 2 minutes and 33 seconds which is 1 second ahead of 2nd place at 2 minutes 34 seconds, the second place was set by a player called “Dezmone” only a week ago at New Year’s Eve. These speedruns are particularly impressive due to the fact that Oblivion is a massive game that can take up to 50-60 hours or more to actually finish.

Oblivion Speedrun
Karsto’s speedrun reaching the final moments of the game in 2 Minutes and 33 seconds setting a current world record for The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion.

An explanation provided by Dezmone shows what makes these impressive speedruns in Oblivion possible, he states that: 

You can go out of bounds by wall clipping. The game tries to put you back in bounds after you fall far enough but the devs tried their best with this and you can end up falling infinitely if you’re not careful.
Opening the door and pausing the game activates a glitch called loadwarping, where you can carry over the character of a different save through the door rather than the character you are currently playing. We figured out that if you loadwarp a save who’s character is sitting, you can carry over the X Y Z coordinates of that character over as well. This puts us out of bounds on both loadwarps. In the sewers, I am already too far under the level so by swimming towards the exit, I can go back in bounds.
The screen going black is me quicksaving and quickloading quickly. You can use this at certain times to skip most of the escort. The escort used to be sticking with the Emperor and his guards until the door is scripted to unlock, but by using quicksave and quickload, we can essentially teleport them to where they need to be.
The door in the floor is called Dragonfire skip or DFS. On the last main quest, the doors in Imperial City get swapped out with an identical door where the city is affected by the Daedra attack. For some reason, one of these doors can be accessed by wall clipping. This skip has been known about since 2007 but getting there quickly was a problem until a few years later when wall clipping became the norm.”
 
The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games have long been known for their much exploited glitches and bugs that have given birth to a community of dedicated players that have took it upon themselves to figure out all the game’s little quirks and see if they can be exploited for speedruns. Bethesda’s older titles like Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim, etc are particularly infamous for this.
 
Karsto’s World Record speedrun can be found here. Dezmone’s speedrun at second place can be found here.  
 
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Nameer Zia is a video game News Writer on eXputer obsessed with hunting down all the latest happenings in the industry. Nameer has been gaming for more than 15 years, during which he has spent more than 3,000 hours on Overwatch 1 & 2. As a literature student, his literary chops feed into his passion for games and writing, using eXputer as the medium to deliver the latest news in the industry. Websites such as GamingBolt and IGN have also credited his works.

Experience: 4+ Years || Previously Worked At: Tech4Gamers || Education: Bachelors in English Literature.

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