Attention all future POP Speedrunners! We are extremely excited to announce our $10,000 Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Speedrunning Challenge in collaboration with Ubisoft! Prepare yourselves for a challenge which will test your cleverness, tenacity, and of course - speed.

**Starting Date:** January 15th, 2024

**Duration:** Two weeks, until 11:59PM UTC January 29th, 2024

This challenge was designed with a low barrier to entry in mind. That includes moving forward with a somewhat shorter category this time around, more on that shortly. Here’s what you need to know:

## Eligibility:

Must own a legitimate copy of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Open to players aged 18 and above worldwide, with the following exceptions: North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, and Venezuela.

## Category:

The featured category in this challenge will be “Pit of Eternal Sands”. This category has you run through the first 4 quests in the game, ending in a fairly significant plot point such that the category still feels whole & meaningful.

As far as rules go, the ruleset will be following a similar ruleset to what you might consider "No Major Glitches." If you would like to know more specifics, please refer to the category rules on the challenge leaderboard.

As always, some updates may have to be made to the ruleset depending on the development of the route over the coming weeks - but the spirit of the category will remain the same. Any updates to the ruleset will be communicated to participants as they are made.

# Submission:

Record your speedrun and submit it via our [Challenge leaderboard here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge)

Follow the guidelines provided for video formatting and submission requirements, found in the rules section.

# Rules and Regulations:

All speedruns must adhere to the official rules, available on the Speedrun.com Challenge leaderboard.

**Contest Rules:** [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge/contest](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge/contest)

**Category Rules:** [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge)

## Prize Distribution:

The $10,000 prize pool will be distributed among the top performers for fastest completion time in the Pit of Eternal Sands category. The distribution is as follows:

**1st place** - $5,000

**2nd place** - $3,000

**3rd place** - $1,000

**4th place** - $250

**5th place** - $200

**6th place** - $150

**7th place to 10th place** - $100

## Challenges

In case you aren’t aware of what a challenge is in the context of Speedrun.com, a Challenge leaderboard functions similarly to the regular leaderboards you're already familiar with. However, we've made a few layout adjustments to cater to the time-sensitive nature of challenges and the inclusion of prize pools.

We always aim to avoid any undue pressure on the associated moderation team with whatever game is the focus of the challenge - so to ensure a smooth process, all runs submitted to the challenge leaderboard will be screened and verified by either SRC staff or Prince of Persia moderation team members *volunteering for the challenge specifically*. After the challenge concludes, SRC staff will collaborate with the Prince of Persia moderation team to discuss the potential merging of challenge runs into the regular leaderboard once the moratorium period expires, respecting the mod team's preferences.

## Preparation Suggestions

To follow the challenge as well as find tips & tricks for the speedrun, visit the [Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Challenge leaderboard right here on Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/5e3eoymq-pop_tlc-pit-of-eternal-sands-10-000-speedrun-challenge) and the [Prince of Persia Speedrunning Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/0Ss0agDWPoiSvr3E)

## Some Advice

The challenge lasts for two weeks, which may sound short, but it's ample time. The fiercest competition for the top three spots typically emerges in the final week or even the last few days of the challenge, so there's really no need to rush through your initial playthrough.

If you have any questions, feel free to pop by our [PoP:TLC forum thread](https://www.speedrun.com/forums/tournaments_and_races/0cy6w)!

Good luck, and have fun speedrunners! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mznpnH8v2o0

Do you have the courage and cleverness to break the seal and enter the Pit of Eternal Sands?

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown $10,000 Speedrun Challenge - Pit of Eternal Sands

In case you haven’t seen yet - Peanut Butter the dog will be running [Gyromite Game B](https://www.speedrun.com/gyromite?h=Game_B_-_Dog_Assistance&x=wdm1w7xd) with his owner, @JSR_ at AGDQ 2024 in January!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ySApo1QRqE

@JSR_ taught his 3 year old Shiba Inu over the course of 9 months to take over the secondary role in the game Gyromite.

![](/static/blob/oeo152ng.jpg)

James and Peanut Butter, or PB & J for short - are able to do this run with a modified gamecube fight stick for PB, which supports A, B, Start, and a macro for more complex inputs.

If you would like to catch the run live, tune into [GamesDoneQuick](https://m.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick?desktop-redirect=true) Tuesday January 16th, 2024 for a historical run!

For localized date & time, check out the [AGDQ 2024 schedule](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/46)

[Also check out this interview with JSR_ from IGN! ](https://x.com/ign/status/1737333403417276458?s=46&t=dCbPZeronSyq-XRKHcpwbA)

Tune in January 16th for a historical speedrun by Peanut Butter the dog and his owner JSR_ as they tackle Gyromite!

The Worlds First Speedrunning Dog At AGDQ 2024!

That is right, ULTRACHARITY is back! An all Ultrakill charity event raising money for Outright Action International. Tune in **December 31, 10:00am PST**, 1:00pm EST for Speedruns, Developer Interviews, and more all centered around Ultrakill!
[https://www.twitch.tv/yellowswerve](https://www.twitch.tv/yellowswerve "https://www.twitch.tv/yellowswerve")

### ![](/static/blob/3ekmqmzx.jpg)

# About Outright

Outright International works with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTIQ+ movement. They document and amplify human rights violations and advocate for inclusion and equality. More information can be found here: [https://outrightinternational.org](https://outrightinternational.org)

**Donations Are Fuel.**

**Stream Is Full.**

Charity Id: OutRight Action International
Location: Twitch.tv/yellowswerve/
Current Objective: Collect Donations
Time Of Day: December 31 10:00am PST

The Return Of ULTRACHARITY!

Between December 7th and December 9th, Epic Games unveiled three new titles from studios it has acquired in recent years. The lineup includes Lego Fortnite, a remarkably well-executed survival adventure game developed by Epic Games, Rocket Racing, an arcade-style racing game created by Psyonix (the minds behind Rocket League), and Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game crafted by Harmonix (the developers of Rock Band).

While Fortnite Festival hasn’t really attracted any kind of speedrunning audience (perhaps for obvious reasons, I mean the run would be mostly autoscroller) the community for speedrunning both Rocket Racing and Lego Fortnite is growing *fast*. I wanted to learn some more about these runs, so I spoke with some runners for each game to hear their thoughts.

# Rocket Racing

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/HrTnfr2Yw-mmZ_TyvKBQIT1dPJxOSIlr8HBUj4JCPCiJGaUUezoXjAKGngn_EvLfoTOa5sVMS5lhFAbwbbrsP_0T48nlXXj_7oRVfK2qcTCfVLko0cImVjfaGWbFSuaYiHdHndeNWP2wFrlc5vvXiqk)

There’s something so beautiful about the simplicity of speedrunning racing games, it’s really as pure as speedrunning gets - just *go fast.* With this simplicity of course comes little variation between games, at least in comparison to other genres. So what makes Rocket Racing stand out? Well according to @nathan_uwp, it mainly comes down to the Boost Management:

> “The drifting makes it so much fun for running too. Like how you can drift more and then use those to plan when to do ur boosts.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhK73hKWcDQ

For some context, the way you increase the charge in your boost meter in this game is by drifting. You’ll notice speedrunners like Nathan drifting almost non-stop, switching directions to still keep a relatively straight line while also ensuring the boost is charged as often as possible.

![](/static/blob/5ngvx6nq.png)

As far as my own opinion, the addition of certain Rocket League elements into a racing game is honestly kind of genius. You can air dodge in specific directions to stick to walls or ceilings (which makes for some pretty sweet level design might I add), and you can also fly a little bit into the air which lets you cut corners much tighter than you normally would be able to - and even “cut corners” on certain hills.

# **Lego Fortnite**

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/T0JVt9ZS4-5GWmZYxQxQAhOI62W4-fJdPWkC33b-YJbMAHqDxzOGa1hbC3uNJn6ke0cKHiziOWnpkHGIcn_Dwg5QETBv3PDfIQNrHtZnE44Aukellp5imDqKWsflcVCftUEz0csJW3-eUs14lZ23ZNg)

Speedrunning an open-world survival adventure game without (as far as I’m aware) a proper ending may not seem like an obvious choice to some of you, but in cases like these, it really comes down to the category structure. In this case, it’s quite similar to what you may have seen before on the Minecraft or Valheim leaderboards, with categories focused on completing specific Builds or killing specific bosses, with sub-categories for number of players, random or set seed, and starting biome.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/TY6xgErzYvcgV3D3LyF27RNnwDeOtUXzKqRg8SKu04UCDtwMTighZRe5SRFkBLMQ8yRTBT1M1O5ZzOwWss0CT0IYbbUzr00c5rxGU2ltqaAXLXg7Errj8olHVcFLtWa--zhkGYWDm_tKkhG3rVB2hPE)

To learn some more about what makes Lego Fortnite speedrunning interesting, I spoke with @shovelclaws who has been grinding both Solo & Co-op for the default category, Common Village (Grasslands).

> “The default category is really simple, it’s collecting the necessary resources and building things. In my mind there are 2 big "skills." 1) Positioning: getting your village in a nice place to reduce travel time, and 2) Decision Making - deciding where to go and when. There’s also 3 big skill checks 1) building the shack, 2) getting lumber mill for planks, and 3) getting your "village level" up high enough which there are a variety of strats for”

The relationship between village level and biome is quite complex and interesting, but I don’t want to get bogged down in the details during this article - however if you’d like to learn some more about that you can follow this link into the conversation inside the [Fortnite Speedrunning Discord](https://discord.com/channels/1005846129470083142/1182732735312306247/1183158808567095338).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ald2WqnAc_w

As an example, the fastest strategy for Common Village in the Grasslands biome is to [spam the candle decoration](https://youtu.be/Ald2WqnAc_w?si=_RFaP-ivTCkjTJFJ&t=398) all over the ground because they require 1 vine which is a very common resource, making it the most efficient decoration for leveling your village in the short term. Shovelclaws mentioned that it believes in the longer categories (ie. Epic Village) it may be more efficient to invest in beds, which are 10 wood each - too expensive for a short category like Common Village but potentially worth the timesave in a 1 hour+ speedrun.

# ![](/static/blob/3ekv5kzx.jpg)Conclusion

After researching and playing some myself for this article, I can definitely see the speedrunning appeal for these two games - Rocket Racing for its clever integration of Rocket League movement mechanics for a new spin on the racing genre, and for Lego Fortnite (who would have thought) for its satisfying collect/build gameplay loop and Candle strats (of all things) - not to mention up to 8 Player co-op. I personally would LOVE to see a 4-8 person speedrun of Epic Village up on a marathon stage some day.

Epic Games released three new games INSIDE of Fortnite, two of which turned out to be pretty neat for speedrunning - let's take a look.

Rocket Racing & Lego Fortnite Speedrunning

No Holidays Allowed 2023 by No Glitches Allowed benefits Go Rescue Pet Adoption Center located in Norfolk, VA. The event will run Wednesday, December 6th-Saturday, December 9th, 2023. Watch the event at [https://www.twitch.tv/noglitchesallowed](https://www.twitch.tv/noglitchesallowed)

Go Rescue website, [find out more about this amazing shelter!](https://www.gorescuedogs.com/) 

[Find the schedule here!](https://horaro.org/nha23/schedule)

Donations/Open Incentives & Bidwars: [https://tiltify.com/+no-glitches-allowed/no-holidays-allowed-2023](https://tiltify.com/+no-glitches-allowed/no-holidays-allowed-2023)

### **W**hat is Go Rescue?

In 2011, a local woman named Georgia Obenaus lost her home and her only focus became how to prevent her family dogs from going back to animal control. Starting out with just an empty shell of a building, GO Rescue soon became not just a place for her current rescues, but a shelter that has grown to rescue over 2,000 dogs to date with no signs of slowing down. They work to provide a haven for homeless dogs, giving them the time, care and love they need to find not just any home, but the right home. **GO Rescue is a state approved 501c3 Non-Profit, which means your invaluable donations may be tax-deductible and your employer might also match your donations.**

Last but not least! Join the [No Glitches Allowed Discord](https://discord.gg/WfcvgPv) to find out when the next event will be, and to volunteer/run for future events!

No Holidays Allowed 2023 by No Glitches Allowed benefits Go Rescue Pet Adoption Center located in Norfolk, VA. The event will run Wednesday, December 6th-Saturday, December 9th, 2023.

No Glitches Allowed 2023 is now Live!

Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 is right around the corner, and they've just accepted a few more runs during their secondary submission period. This period primarily serves the purpose of providing newly released games with the opportunity to get on the big stage. Let's explore what's new on the schedule and get excited for AGDQ 2024!

### [Skull Island: Rise of Kong](https://www.speedrun.com/Skull_Island_Rise_of_Kong) - Any% | [SweedOla](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Sweed)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGQ0ANDGSdw

### [Risk of Rain Returns](https://www.speedrun.com/rorr) - Any% |  [scaz](https://www.speedrun.com/users/scaz.zaf)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkdRJ6q5bxU

### [Starfield](https://www.speedrun.com/starfield) - Any% | [Harcacola](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Harc)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sSIAN_e4-8

### [Super Mario Bros. Wonder](https://www.speedrun.com/smbw) - Any% | [JankPickle](https://www.speedrun.com/users/JankPickle)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987668362

### [COCOON](https://www.speedrun.com/cocoon) - Any% | [Sunnymuffin](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Sunnymuffin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO2uvXljACs

### [Bluey: The Video Game](https://www.speedrun.com/Bluey_The_Videogame) - Any% | [Phillie](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Phillie)

### https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1986581940

### [Dinobreak](https://www.speedrun.com/Dinobreak_) - Any% NG+ | [Gnydsmelt](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Gnydsmelt)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnuFK5Qb6I

### [Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways [DLC]](https://www.speedrun.com/re4r?h=separate-ways-any-pc-professional&x=7dgepwg2-rn1jrq1n.1w4vyovq-dlo9wqrl.qoxmrj2q) - New Game Professional | [CaptainEzekiel](https://www.speedrun.com/users/CaptainEzekiel)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g93d5M5jtHw

### [Lies of P](https://www.speedrun.com/lies_of_p) - Any% | [blanxz](https://www.speedrun.com/users/blanxz)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM7ENSSvi5s

### [Armored Core 6](https://www.speedrun.com/acvi?h=ng-true-ending-pc&x=q25pw6jd-j84vz228.q8k2483q) - NG+ Any% True Ending | [Raine_BT](https://www.speedrun.com/users/RaineBt)

### https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOoicHhCQQ

### [Baldur's Gate 3](https://www.speedrun.com/baldurs_gate_3?h=any-no-gale&x=7kjyoe4k) - All Acts | [maeeeeee](https://www.speedrun.com/users/maeeeeee)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0uWqvwj58

Quite a few new additions! Congrats to all the new runners, I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to seeing your runs in January!Now that the [schedule is complete](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/46) - what runs are you looking forward to most?

The 2nd submission period for AGDQ 2024 is over - let's dig into what's new on the schedule!

AGDQ 2024 Schedule Updated W/ 2nd Submission Period Runs!

Hey everyone! Today, we're excited to announce a new feature heading into beta today that adds a little extra flavor to user profile browsing – introducing User Profile Popovers!

### ![](/static/blob/oeo8k4zg.png)

### Profile Popovers

Profile Popovers are our latest beta feature, and we're eager to gather feedback from our Supporters initially so we can improve and iterate based on feedback.

So what is the popover? Clicking on a username will bring up the popover which provides a quick summary of their profile where you can learn more about others without navigating away from your current page.

Supporters will enjoy an additional personalized touch with animated borders, and the new Supporter Badge.

That's not all either, there's more to come - more customization will be coming soon to the Profile Popover.

Supporters! If you have ideas for what you would like to see in the popovers or anything else, please let us know in the [Supporter Forums Popover Feedback Thread](https://www.speedrun.com/forums/supporter/corzl) - we want to hear it all! We look forward to adding and tweaking profile popovers based on feedback in the coming days :)

### What's Next?

We're still hard at work on other long-requested features for Speedrun, including improved moderator tools (such as Arbitrary Variable Mapping, and Mass Run Management) as well as bringing more quality of life and aesthetic changes into beta for our Supporters :)

Let's discuss the new User Profile Popover, a new cosmetic feature in temporary beta for SRC Supporters

User Profile Popover - New Supporter Beta Feature

The 7th Souls Charity Marathon takes place December 1-3rd!

# **What is Souls Charity Marathon?** 

Formerly known as 'SpeedSouls Charity Marathon', this is the Souls Speedrunning community's beloved charity marathon. It consists of 3 days of back-to-back Souls speedrun content, but is not exclusive to just those games! During the event you can expect high level speedruns, randomizers, and our yearly tradition, the community relay race. The marathon benefits [Save the Children](https://www.savethechildren.net/) and has fundraised a total of $126,000 to date.

# **What is the relay race?** 

The relay race consists of two teams of speedrunners who will race through the entire Souls series, and for the first time including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Every year the relay race features a different category for this race, this year teams will speedrun the Any% Glitchless category of their games. This entire race is projected to be approximately 7 hours, and is not to be missed as it is truly the highlight of the event.

# **When is the marathon?** 

The marathon is December 1st-3rd, find the schedule [here](https://oengus.io/marathon/scm2023/schedule).

# **Where to find us:**

**Twitch**: [SoulsSpeedruns](https://www.twitch.tv/soulsspeedruns)
**Twitter**: [@SoulsSpeedruns](https://twitter.com/soulsspeedruns) 
**Website**: [soulsspeedruns.com](https://soulsspeedruns.com)

Don't miss out on our 7th annual marathon! Come for the Souls runs, stay for the community.

Souls Charity Marathon is a community speedrun event filled with Souls series speedruns, randomizers, and our special feature relay race. Come join this one-of-a-kind event in efforts to raise funds for Save the Children.

Souls Charity Marathon is back for its 7th year this December!

# It begins!

The developer of **Soccer Online: Ball 3D** - *Maniek*, has announced on the official Discord server of the game a competition in his title.

The competition started on 18 November and will last until the first day of 2024.

### What is this game? Are there rewards? Allow me to explain.

Ball 3D is a physics-based online sports game of which the main gamemode is football/soccer with heavy emphasis on PvP aspect of the game. But of course that won't stop us, speedrunners...

- *Steam* page - [https://store.steampowered.com/app/485610/Soccer_Online_Ball_3D/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/485610/Soccer_Online_Ball_3D/)

It all started in 2012 when it was released as a browser game heavily inspired by *HaxBall* - a "2D top-down Ball 3D" also playable on your browser. Our game has experienced a lot of major updates and changes and is now on *Steam,* since 2017. Not very long ago B3D stopped being free-2-play. The price now is around *€1/$1.1* with frequent discounts.

In-game items were introduced with chest and key drops and that's when we start speaking of **rewards**.

The winners (world record holders) who'll have a WR by **01.01.2024** get **100 in-game keys** used to open chests with epic items.

![](/static/blob/4zj8vlek.png)

Ah right, the goals of the competition:

- Top 1 in *Racing (1 Lap)* category - real time attack of all 4 tracks available in the Racing gamemode (played on a private server)
- Top 1 in *Single Goal (Expert difficulty, Default map)* - timed with IGT (played on Bots)
- Top 1 in *10 Goals* - same as above but you got to score 10 as a team (no, own goals don't count)
- Top 1 in *Tutorial* - real time attack of game's tutorial

Everyone is most welcome to join in on the fun. Think you can do better than current WR and get yourself a brand new set of in-game rewards? Prove it.

Let ending of the year be truly ballin'.

### Useful links:

- *Racing* run from *McRaeathon 2021* - [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/997183906](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/997183906)
- *10 Goals* run from *Mini InstaSpeedathon 2023* - [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1979244053](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1979244053)
- Soccer Online: Ball 3D Discord server - [https://discord.com/invite/ball-3d-soccer-online-266243131853373440](https://discord.com/invite/ball-3d-soccer-online-266243131853373440)

In-game rewards to win in Soccer Online: Ball 3D speedruns.

Official Ball 3D Speedrun Competition

The Callisto Protocol (referred to simply as Callisto from here on out) is a survival horror game developed by Striking Distance Studios. Released in December of last year, you play as intergalactic cargo pilot Jacob Lee whose spaceship crash lands on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/N7rQhJqTDNTdVxVJPoUBLQbdAU7GO5XvV6PdpOf-6jD4N9GLHp2wj5lEwrvJhrht_fuXnCseIV7srzu5suirsJdxR5SgrS5TukljM6wcLP_7cige4dp2JXW3Lr_JxHiwItwAW7KqWnlaHN5FH6lDljQ)

Callisto’s 5th level, Lost, is one of the most hated levels among the Callisto community. Before the developers added cutscene skips in an update earlier this year, this level would clock in around **30 minutes** glitchless. Lost features several lengthy cutscenes, frustrating combat sections, autoscrollers, and **lots** of downtime.

# Lost I, II, & III

In Callisto, checkpoints are only loaded once the corresponding map file is loaded in memory, meaning it is not possible to skip from one map to another, even if the coordinates in the game world overlap. Skipping from a checkpoint earlier in a map to one later on is fair game.

Lost is broken up into three map files.

- *Snowcat_Persistent* (Lost I)
- *Hanger_Persistent* (Lost II)
- *Europa_Tunnels_Persistent* (Lost III)

*Snowcat* is the first and longest section, *Hanger* is the second section and is mostly unskippable cutscenes and story stuff, *Tunnels* is only a single cutscene. For this piece, I will only be talking about the first section of Lost, *Snowcat*, as it is the only notable section of this level.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/iYDUcwmz2a8bF02YP9jo-9_R9EsUh_ebQAE-V7Yz-8m-zxbltYNsbIXol4GVoY0bCjZDaMijYK5k5bLBjoTKm0Uiw5cNe6apKd3yERSBe5yVh5RViFph1EG8jIQ60IhH9Otgq2MhfogcF7hMkQTMUiY)

# Early Days of Lost Skip

On December 7th 2022, less than a week after Callisto was released, community member @Symystery would unknowingly post the first step to Lost Skip. Symystery had found a way to walk out of bounds before the first frustrating fight scene. He said that he thought it wasn’t useful. He would be correct, this discovery wasn’t useful yet. Little did the community know that this would open the door for one of the biggest skips in the run.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/hv0ISEOIdXbrpdCP7cFnqITP4cqC5NCd9AWoVB1vohB719KQQ14Z7gwIeCZplL_u5FfWVJPtVdQQeRfCtcINEPiDwZvaoAvo2VE2dZuYUESa1aiGPlHjQNyG2WkLNSQmBS0L2hx7GyWgVWjI57q-txo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpPAG9hdiw

# New Tech 

A month later, on January 4th, @Looney would find a new tech called Inventory Hovering.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/n90pFmAH3p0gYWkjGrYBl_P1fY2ROxeo9DVlq6Z9rWBkSayAxFiH4gL1cFftKNO_xiaP9JnPG2uEyhW9jeI5wD-OBhIvsTh6GDFDPSGLkjfdRr_SWspZsP3UwiRg9q74ouiJkhypixa01eTGMmswYdo)

Jacob has an inventory that he can open by pressing TAB where he can view his arsenal and gear up for combat. Once you press TAB, Jacob’s momentum starts to slow down and then comes to a halt a second later. Once stopped, his coordinates in the game world become frozen until he is either attacked by an enemy or closes the inventory. By opening the inventory as soon as you hit certain collision while dropping from an elevated surface, Jacob is able to maintain the frozen Z coordinate (The player's height) but his X and Y will continue to move in the direction of the collision. This allows the player to fly through the air in the direction the collision sends them.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/JoMYfmMBqNyjs4_cnQ04_fa5jrK_DvfiFatQNzhKdozAVNaazC_0ykojnUwu_3FfkdO2hSPTVvq47BnXRGcTsezr5X68omT8mxGzmcuxFzM1KfaT_tFIbnHzAYFxr9xqIJroNbnGMouOKNWyHVC_yzc)

You may think that this sounds really broken, and it is, but it has its problems. For one it doesn’t work on every piece of collision, you usually have to hit some kind of sloped or angled surface. Hovering through the air is also much slower than running speed so you have to make sure whatever you are skipping by doing the hover is faster than just running through the level.

# The First Breakthrough

A few days later, Looney would find a way to use the new Inventory Hover tech combined with the out of bounds Symystery had posted a month earlier to fly into the out of bounds space to hover over a large death barrier which would instantly kill anything that touched it.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RBZgjLYcxzUMJZaIW2zutyjT3InnyJF1FCpVtnMjnsWwPY7csbVBbfdr1SFvKQQ8OOhT58rzmaxNSM_ONeFQIUa0IpEOAiLWZfIfgktCVDwVUTPiwA2Fav39Zn-WfyuwrMH4irfX-sYl8dV2ZJuo_cI)

Once out of bounds, he found a way to scale the large mountain in front of the player.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/-MxkHHeQt-D0g9SsFupXLOikNgRPliZuXWM9z_rGjX4aHnFQsvRObztONpvPmTWw7IZUkSQz9ykh0Hn01GpagMXta3gY8prkYW2uDrFotVWskZGsKqXNAozGLIY6b847IlH7UU2z5Dw6-K2IkTcP1CM)

Navigating the out of bounds space is very difficult because everything is extremely low detail to save on resources. Most of the textures do not match the actual collision that is present in the game world, meaning in some instances you are able to walk on what seems like thin air. If you stray too far from the path up the mountain the level will also unload. Additionally, there is invisible collision all over the out of bounds space, and you need to do some certain camera movements to unload them. All of this combined made finding a good path to take to the top of the mountain difficult, but not impossible.

From the top of this mountain you can do a precise setup to get stuck inside of a rock and do another piece of tech called a Stomp Launch to fly **thousands** of coordinates towards Jacob’s ship which has the final cutscene required to complete the first part of Lost.

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/NUMBNOv6bBVTz-L7yfnIygumuK1Q3qAPU2RwfTUzPGbpXp8tKbqFR7Strb7SBg0BmOjBp9WXEPBdhPRpKjknMB8pXq4CUEM6zBjKXEauyxtIPmDWoxW1QNyoQp89WkEalmWAkPTzpdH8b_0qrFRdHkU)

# Stomp Launches

If the player stomps into certain collision, Jacob will go flying through the air backwards. We can use this to cross decently sized gaps or holes. We do this in a few other parts of the game, like the start of Outbreak to skip the entire level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emvNsAohWtw?t=49

If Jacob is stuck inside of collision, the collision unloads, and then the player stomps at the same time - Jacob will fly thousands and thousands of coordinates backwards. You can aim where he will launch if you aim Jacob’s back in the direction you wish to fly towards. Once in the air Jacob will only stop if he hits a wall, a floor, or if the player reloads the last checkpoint.

There are many factors that determine how far of a Stomp Launch you will get. Some of these things include:

- The player’s angle towards the object
- The timing on when the player stomps (how early/late)
- How deep the player is in the collision
- The current framerate/FPS (higher = farther launches)

Due to stomps being determined by the framerate, the Callisto community decided to put a cap of no higher than 120 FPS to try and mitigate hardware discrepancies between runners.

# Patch 1.8

In April, Striking Distance Studios released patch 1.8 that allowed the player to skip almost all cutscenes in the game. This saved almost 1 hour in glitchless. You might think that this would have a big impact on the run, but you would be wrong

![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/WR-KevvAx-oRSfg7AXGjl2a6DYTLkH6HxG3xZxmrV5Cv5ocM0xZBylmL7f0C9BZsyIEH7NMj48G2LHfDCOV6dY73BeTXcRJsJ5py78I0a8bxZTqpUc-GybhWfhQjiXgYLGTHR7tpxPFXXmI9cOG9Qbg)

In the same update Striking Distance Studios fixed the very first out of bounds that made Lost Skip possible in the first place. They raised the invisible wall, meaning it was no longer possible to get out of bounds the same way we used too.

A few months prior, Striking Distance also patched Aftermath Skip, which saved around 15 minutes with cutscene skips. This was no problem for the community, as we would simply play on the fastest version by downpatching - but this was different.

Since Lost Skip saved around 12 minutes with the cutscene skips combined with the fact that they had patched Aftermath Skip in a previous update (which saved nearly 20 minutes) this made the patch with cutscene skips slower than the one where you had to sit through all of the unskippable cinematics.

The community was pretty upset. They had released an update to skip almost all of the down time and optimally it wasn’t even faster to play on this version. Some community members returned, and we saw @sharkhat lower the world record by a few minutes with cutscene skips, but the community knew it could go much lower on the old patch![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/m7ZNnHkVwyen1-GLyT5_eN0MIttmF81oZ077PTgeQ0LhIzchwFMQmvwnDP6rQdLVtmfiFLEHGnBmBqH1VnKQuRl5FmndHQlcDc2Uc8eUbw5soCmpH-gLxlWNyuZJHR0_NncWT-BGEXfQT0ZQFfuvFRw)

# Early Leads

The community wasn’t ready to give up. We knew that if we found any way to get out of bounds again it was possible. Looney, Sharkhat, and Symystery would go looking for Lost skip again on the cutscene skip patch. Symystery [had posted a theory](https://discord.com/channels/1040028798432845831/1040028799041032211/1098307092646985849) only a day after 1.8 was released, where you could get a stomp launch earlier a little earlier in the level.

![](/static/blob/5ng5r4zq.png)

Unfortunately - nothing ever came from this particular discovery.

# Where We Are Today

Thankfully, a few days later Symystery would find a way to do Lost Skip on cutscene skip patch, which officially made the version with cutscene skips faster than without.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIThtSrns8s

Currently Lost I sits around a comfortable 8 minutes, significantly better than the 30 minute grind it used to be before Lost Skip and the addition of skippable cutscenes.

I want to give a big shoutout to @Looney and the rest of the Callisto speedrunning community, because without everyone working together we never would have been able to find as much as we did in Callisto.

Is the game solved? Definitely not, there are certainly discoveries yet to be made and sub 1 hour seems like it is within reach - but only time will tell.

Let's dive into how Callisto speedrunners took a 30 minute level down to just 8 minutes.

Callisto Community Breaks The Longest Level - Lost

Gyromite

Dark Souls

ULTRAKILL

Ball 3D

The Callisto Protocol

In order to properly figure out categories, rules, timing method, etc. this leaderboard will not feature any runs for the first two weeks after the game's release. In the meantime you can join us in the [Prince of Persia discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/0Ss0agDWPoiSvr3E) to discuss about the game.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

xwpw4y0l

B.G.B.

Symystery

Chottue

Ashewyn

TheRealGRBow

A Difficult Game About Climbing

The leaderboards will open 2 weeks from launch to allow discussion about the categories we want to start out with.